TORONTO -- Serena Williams insists its not as easy as it looks. The top-seeded American breezed to her third Rogers Cup title with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea in Sundays final, giving Williams her eighth WTA title of the year and 54th of her career. She didnt drop a set all week at the $2.369-million tournament and lost only 22 games, almost half of which came against third-seed Agnieszka Radwanska in a semifinal match which proved to be the only real test for the world No. 1 in Toronto. With the absence of top-five players Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, and the early exit of Wimbledon champ Marion Bartoli, all due to injury, Williamss path to the title was made considerably less obstructed. But with expectation comes pressure, and Williams proved more than up to the task. "No tournament is ever easy, especially being in the position I am in," said Williams. "The tournament starts and they expect you to win. And the tournament is like, youre going to be in the final and after your semifinal I want you to do this, and you have to do this and this press. Who knows if Ill even make it to the semifinals? "Its a lot of pressure. Its not easy." Williams says she likes where her game it as heading towards the U.S Open, where she is the defending champion, and shell look to use this victory as momentum this week in Cincinnati. Despite only having lost one match since March, a stunning early exit at Wimbledon, Williams says theres still room for improvement. "For me its always about constantly improving and never saying I did great and I can be satisfied," she said. "I did great (today), but what can I do better? What can I improve on? Thats what I always strive for. "When I get satisfied, and for a lot of players, the (playing) level goes down." Cirstea, meanwhile, had a breakthrough tournament, having ousted two former world No. 1s in Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki before dethroning defending champion Petra Kvitova in the quarters, then fourth-seed Li Na of China in the semifinals. She was appearing in only her third WTA final and looking to build on her only title, won way back in 2008 at Tashkent. "For me its been a really positive week and Im going to take everything that well to the next tournament," said Cirstea. Cirstea showed her nerves from the opening game, double faulting the first point and again at 30-40 to give Williams an early break. Williams broke again for 3-0 after Cirstea sent a backhand wide. That prompted a visit from her Australian coach Darren Cahill, who gave the 23-year-old a pep talk. It appeared to work momentarily as Cirstea won four straight points to break back and held serve at 3-2 to get back in the match. But Williams quickly removed any chance of an upset, winning two straight games and acing a set point winner for 6-2. "The start was not as bad as the scored showed," said Cirstea. "The first three games I had really good chances so I could have been up three-love. Suddenly I found myself down three-love. I know the score seems quite tough but there were moments when I felt the match was closer than it seemed." With shouts of "Sorana" and "Serena" volleying back and forth around the stadium like tennis balls, splashes of Romanias blue, yellow and red could be seen dotting the almost-full Rexall Centre stands on a warm, sunny afternoon. "I was surprised to see how many Romanians there were out there and how many flags Ive seen," said Cirstea. "It was an incredible atmosphere and it made me feel like home when they were screaming, supporting me and saying positive things. Im looking forward to coming back here." The vocal contingent cheering on Cirstea didnt have much to go on in the second set. Williams broke out of the gate using her trademark power strokes to keep Cirstea running and ripped a 199 km/h ace to hold serve at 2-0. Cirstea, with her head hanging low, again called over Cahill for motivation, but it did little this time as Williams eased through the final four games and wrapped up the match in just over an hour. Williams gets $426,000 for the win while Cirstea will take home $213,000 -- almost half her prize money earned so far this year. Cirstea teared up during the trophy presentation and graciously expressed her admiration for Williams. "Usually Im quite emotional," said the Romanian. "Of course I was disapointed because I wanted to play better, so its mixed feelings out there. I think even if I won today I would still be crying." All three of Williamss Rogers Cup titles have come in Toronto, the first in 2001 before winning it again in 2011. She says she loves playing in this city because of the friends who come out to see her play. Local hip-hop star Drake, who was also present for her 2011 win, sat courtside and cheered on Williams. "Were really good friends," said Williams, "I was excited that he made it today." In the doubles final, Jankovic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia won 5-7, 6-2, 10-6 over Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Czech Kveta Peschke. Mike Hennigan . -- Masahiro Tanaka knows that first appearance in a spring training game for the New York Yankees will be scrutinized. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Online . 5 Trade Deadline is drawing closer and teams will be deciding on whether to buy or sell. https://www.cheapnfljerseyschina.co/roy-ruskusky-jersey-for-sale/ . -- Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be the Dodgers starting pitchers in their two-game season-opening series in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Justin Canale . Joakim Nordstrom and Garret Ross also scored for Chicago and Corey Crawford made 30 saves. Tomas Tatar scored twice for Red Wings (2-3-0), Jonathan Ericsson added a goal and Gustav Nyquist had three assists. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale . The 20-year-old Inoue landed a series of combinations and the bout was stopped 2 minutes, 54 seconds into the sixth round. Inoue, the first Japanese boxer to claim a world title in just his sixth professional fight, improved to 6-0 with five knockouts.Alex Ovechkin’s slump, big nights for Abdelkader, Datsyuk and Smith; lineup news, fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. Held scoreless in Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to Detroit, Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin has now gone a career-worst five consecutive games without a point. It’s not burying Ovechkin to point out that he’s in a slump (and I’ve already been something of an Ovechkin apologist in the past), but it’s easy to see that Ovechkin is really doing a lot well right now, even if the points haven’t been coming as expected over this short span of games. In the first nine games of the Barry Trotz era in Washington, Ovechkin has posted a career-best Corsi% (measuring even-strength shot attempts) of 59.4%. OVECHKIN POSSESSION STATS YEAR CORSI% CORSI REL% 2007-08 58.1% +4.2% 2008-09 57.4% +4.2% 2009-10 57.8% +7.2% 2010-11 53.9% +4.0% 2011-12 47.4% -2.3% 2012-13 49.2% +0.7% 2013-14 49.3% +2.5% 2014-15 59.4% +5.0% What’s encouraging about these numbers is that Ovechkin is driving play like he did earlier in his career, and a far cry from his 2011-2012 season when his offensive production hit career-low rates (65 points in 78 games). Like last season, Ovechkin is not getting much help from linemates – his lone assist this year has come on the power play – but thanks to a recent decline in shots on goal, his 4.22 shots on goal per game ranks as the second-lowest of his career. In the first four games of this dry spell, Ovechkin had mustered just seven shots on goal and that’s some reason for concern, because he’s always been a high-volume shooter, leading the league in shots on goal in eight of his nine seasons but, let’s not overreact, it was just four games. Wednesday, against Detroit, Ovechin attempted 13 shots, with seven on goal, against the Red Wings, which is a good way to get out of a scoring slump. Because Ovechkin’s underlying numbers have been so good, there’s not so much reason to worry about this slump, because those signs point to goals and points coming back at a more regular rate soon. HEROES Justin Abdelkader – Hard-hitting winger who gets to play a complementary role with some elite players in Detroit and he scored two goals and an assist in Wednesday’s 4-2 win at Washington. He scored a career-high 28 points last season, but has eight points (5 G, 3 A) in nine games this year, riding a 22.7% shooting percentage that won’t last, but he is also playing a career-high 16:30 per game and generating a career-best 2.44 shots on goal per game. Pavel Datsyuk – The Magician tallied a goal and an assist, with a team-leading eight shot attempts (4 SOG) in the win at Washington. Datsyuk has five points in four games since returning from injury, and the Red Wings have eased him in, playing 18:42 per game.ddddddddddddThe last season in which he averaged less ice time per game (than this admittedly very small sample) was 2005-2006. Craig Smith – The Predators’ leading goal-scorer, with 24, last season, Smith buried a pair of goals on nine shot attempts (5 SOG), while posting quality possession stats (17 shot attempts for, 10 against, 63.0%) in a 4-1 win at Edmonton. ZEROES Niklas Kronwall – The Red Wings’ No. 1 defenceman had a rough night, possession-wise, on for five shot attempts for and 18 against (21.7%). His worst forward matchups, head-to-head, were against Capitals C Nicklas Backstrom (2 shot attempts for, 10 against, 16.7%) and RW Joel Ward (2 for, 13 against, 13.3%). Mark Arcobello – Despite not starting an even-strength shift in the defensive zone, the Oilers’ centre had his team’s worst possession stats (9 shot attempts for, 16 against, 36.0%). SHORT SHIFTS Red Wings C Henrik Zetterberg had a pair of assists…Predators D Roman Josi had two assists and blocked seven shots…Predators G Pekka Rinne stopped 26 of 27 shots for the win in Edmonton. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Capitals RW Eric Fehr was scratched from the lineup as second-year RW Tom Wilson was inserted into the lineup for his first game of the season after suffering a broken ankle in the summer. Predators C Calle Jarnkrok, still looking for his first point of the season, was scratched from the lineup in Edmonton Wednesday. Predators D Seth Jones played a season-low 14:46 at Edmonton, though had a solid possession game (15 shot attempts for, 9 against, 62.5%) in that limited role. FIRSTS Predators C Matt Cullen played his first game of the season, picking up an assist while playing 15:18. FANTASY FOCUS A few players, available in more than half of TSN leagues, to monitor on a busy 10-game night in the NHL: Jori Lehtera – Someone in St. Louis has to get the puck to the Blues’ scoring wingers and with injuries to Paul Stastny and David Backes, Lehtera is clearly the best option down the middle. He has six points in seven games and is centering Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko heading into tonight’s matchup with Anaheim. Michael Raffl – Getting moved to the Flyers’ top line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek is working well for Raffl, who has four goals and five points in the past five games. Tonight, the Flyers go to Tampa Bay, which isn’t an easy matchup, but Raffl is still available in nearly 99% of TSN leagues. Seth Griffith – The rookie winger has emerged as the Bruins’ best option on the right side with David Krejci and Milan Lucic, scoring three goals and five points in the past four games. Really, anyone on the Bruins is worth a look since they are in Buffalo to play the Sabres. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '