Toronto, ON – World No. 1 Serena Williams added to her impressive resume on Sunday, claiming a third Rogers Cup crown.
The top-seeded American star was an easy straight-set winner in the final at Toronto, breezing past unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea, 6-2, 6-0, to pick up her eighth title of the season and 54th of her career, passing Monica Seles for ninth place on the Open-Era list.
Williams' year is on par with the best of her career, when she captured eight events back in 2002. She becomes the first player to win a third Rogers Cup since Seles, who won four straight from 1995-98. Williams also won this tournament in 2001 and 2011.
Cirstea, who was making her first appearance in a final in nearly five years, was unable to defeat her fourth Top-10 opponent this week. She beat No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 7 Petra Kvitova and No. 5 Li Na on her way to reaching the title match.
Despite the loss, Cirstea is still projected to climb to No. 21 in the world rankings, a new career high.