The 30-year-old Brazilian, who played just one match last year following hip surgery, made light of gusting winds to beat South African Wesley Moodie 6-4 7-5 and seal his second win in three tour matches this year.
Kuerten, three-times French Open champion, dropped out of the world's top 1,000 before bouncing back to 804th after winning a match at the Brazil Open this month.
He will join German Benjamin Becker and Czech Jan Hernych in one of the eight round-robin groups, with the group winners then progressing to the quarter-finals.
"It's a really good feeling," Kuerten told reporters. "To be around again, back in tournaments.
"It's more than one and a half years since I played four matches in one week. That's what I am looking forward to."
Kuerten, who has also been given a wildcard for the Masters Series event in Indian Wells next week, is more concerned with getting matches under his belt than getting wins at this stage.
"My level will rise a lot playing in tournaments," he said. "I am looking forward to see what happens, work on my game, not care too much about getting results but play from here to Miami with no major problems, and get more confidence."
Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, who has slipped to 92nd in the world rankings, and Spaniard Feliciano Lopez also made it through to the round-robin stage.
In the three round-robin matches played on Monday, there were wins for Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, American Paul Goldstein and Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.
Verdasco battled back to beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 3-6 6-3 7-5, and Goldstein demolished another French player, Julien Benneteau, 6-1 6-0.
The 18-year-old del Potro sent a warning to top seed James Blake, who is in the same group, by crushing Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-3 6-2.
Blake begins the defence of his title on Tuesday against Korolev. Second seed Lleyton Hewitt and number three Marat Safin are also in action.
