Rogers Cup: Serena Williams demolishes unheralded Sorana Cirstea in women’s final

Serena Williams demonstrated she is just as dominant as ever with an easy 6-2, 6-0 victory over unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea on Sunday.

When Serena Williams won the 2011 Rogers Cup in Toronto it was a huge comeback moment for the unseeded American.

She had been off the WTA tour with a foot injury and life-threatening pulmonary embolism and wondered if she’d ever play tennis again. She really wanted a win.

Winning the tournament this year, without dropping a single set all week, was less emotional and more of a welcome confirmation that, at 31 years of age, her game is as dominant as ever.

 

Sunday’s victory at the Rexall Centre was Williams’ eighth WTA title of the year and the 54th of her career. But the world No. 1 says she still never takes anything for granted when she steps on the court.

“I had butterflies today. I will have butterflies at the (U.S.) Open,” Williams said after her speedy 6-2, 6-0 win over unseeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania.

“No tournament is ever easy, especially being in the position I am in. The tournament starts and they expect you to win,” she said. “It’s a lot of pressure and it’s not easy.”

She certainly made it look pretty easy at the $2.37 million Rogers Cup.

With the absence of world No. 2 Maria Sharapova and No. 3 Victoria Azarenka — both are out with injuries — Williams was only tested once, in the semifinal against third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.

The 24-year-old Polish player forced Williams to a tiebreak in the first set and led several times in the second but still couldn’t get past the American’s serve and powerful groundstrokes.

Cirstea, who had never before made it to a final in a tournament of this size, had even more trouble with her.

Up until Sunday, the 23-year-old Romanian had been having a Cinderella run through the tournament, taking out both of last year’s finalists — defending champion Petra Kvitova and runner-up Li Na — and two former world No. 1s in Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic.

But she struggled right from the start with Williams, couldn’t find her stride, and doubled faulted four times in the opening set.

She was in tears when she thanked the fans for their support — Romanian flags and even some faces painted blue, yellow and red were visible in the stands — and apologized for not giving them a better battle against the world’s top player.

“I was a little bit disappointed because I wanted to play better. I knew I could play better,” Cirstea said.

Despite the loss, the Rogers Cup was still a breakthrough tournament for Cirstea. She entered the final ranked 27th but is expected to rise to a career-high ranking of 21st with her runner-up result.

Cirstea never gave up despite being totally overpowered by Williams, even in the second set when she was down 5-0 and played some of her best tennis.

Canadians didn’t fare as well in the Rogers Cup women’s tourney as the men did in Montreal, where Milos Raonic lost to Rafael Nadal in the final. But Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard and Toronto’s Sharon Fichman both made it to the second round. And in doubles, Fichman and partner Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa made it all the way to semifinals, eliminating the world No. 1 team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci along the way.

“It’s a fantastic time in Canadian tennis,” said Karl Hale, director of the Rogers Cup Toronto tournament. “It will have a tremendous ripple effect throughout Canadian tennis.

“One, we will have a lot more juniors playing the sport because of Milos and Vasek (Pospisil) and Eugenie now. (And) two is that all of our players actually believe that we can be a great tennis nation.”