Maria Sharapova pulled out from the Gold Coast WTA event due to a shoulder injury.
Factbox on Romanian Simona Halep, who beat Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win the French Open title on Saturday:
More than 1,800 Thais and foreign tourists are confirmed to have died and the death toll is expected to climb.
Defending champion Maria Sharapova was forced to drop a set before beating Patty Schnyder in the season-ending WTA Championships.
The 20-year-old Russian made no secret of the fact that she preferred faster surfaces.
The world No. 1 scraped into the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals when Anna-Lena Groenefeld retired with an ankle injury leading the second-round match 6-1, 4-2.
Serena Williams faces her first seeded opponent at the French Open on Thursday and will hope to use her booming serve to beat Australian Ashleigh Barty in the second round.
Former world number one Serena Williams returns to Grand Slam action for the first time in over 15 months, when she goes up against Czech Kristyna Pliskova in the French Open first round.
Switzerland's Belinda Bencic became the first teenager in seven years to reach the top 10 of the WTA rankings after she climbed to ninth in the world on Monday.
The 16-year-old Sharapova won her first WTA title, something her better-known compatriot is yet to achieve.
Lindsay Davenport beat Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-3 to reach the final of the New Haven Open
The American will regain the world number one ranking from Russian Maria Sharapova if she reaches the final.
The American ace beat Vera Zvonareva while US Open champion Kuznetsova accounted for Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals of the China Open.
The Wimbledon champion beat Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico 6-1, 6-4 at the $1.3 million Montreal Cup.
