Hunter made a mockery of her lowly ranking in the process, upsetting Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz 4-6 6-2 6-4 on Sunday to record her maiden grand-slam main-draw victory.
The 28-year-old rallied from a service break down in the deciding set to join Sophie Ferguson (2010) as only the second Australian woman to progress to the second round at Roland Garros as a qualifier.
Hunter had fallen in the first round of all seven of her previous grand-slam main-draw appearances - five times at the Australian Open and at the 2021 French and US Opens.
But the unsung hero of Australia's charge to the final of last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals teams' event once again rose to the occasion.
Ranked 110 places below Parrizas Diaz at world No.204, Hunter refused to throw in the towel after surrendering a 4-2 lead to drop the first set after losing four straight games.
She had fought desperately to claim the first service break of the match on her fifth opportunity in the sixth game, before briefly losing her way.
Staying cool, Hunter broke Parrizas Diaz in the fourth game of the second set with a series of forceful forehands before levelling the match at one set apiece.
She trailed 4-2 in the deciding set but again rallied with some do-or-die groundstrokes from the back to secure her breakthrough win in two hours and 10 minutes.
Hunter's reward is a second-round clash with either newly-crowned Stuttgart champion and one-time world No.3 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine or Italian 26th seed Martina Trevisan.
13°C