The 26-year-old figure skater from St. Petersburg received 84.48 points from the judges.
Kazuki Tomono (95.81) from Japan is in the lead after the first day of competition.
The second place is taken by the Georgian Moris Kvitelashvili (95.37), the third is Roman Sadovsky from Canada (84.59).
Free skate rental will take place on November 27.
Earlier it was reported that Kamila Valieva performed a triple axel at a training session in Sochi.