Nothing can be said except absolute respect for Serena Williams who won her second straight Premier-level title with a convincing 6-4 6-2 victory over Samantha Stosur in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Serena doesn’t need months to get back in shape and warm up for big matches – after almost a year away from the courts Williams returned in style winning two of four tournaments she entered.

In the Rogers Cup final against tenth-seeded Stosur, Williams kept her serve throughout, faced just one break opportunity, won 89% of points on her first serve, and finished the match in style, firing four aces in the last game.

Ahead of the US Open, Serena is still cautious of calling herself a favorite: "I went through a lot of things physically, mentally and emotionally, and going through so much so I am just taking it one day at a time and kind of like one match at a time."

The unseeded Williams, whose rankings dropped because of her long time away from the Tour, crushed Alona Bondarenko 6-0 6-3 in the first round, and then Julia Goerges, Zheng Jie, Lucie Safarova, Victoria Azarenka and finally Samantha Stosur. The victory saw Williams propel from No.80 to No.31 in the rankings. Before her injury layoff Williams was ranked No.1. (via Reuters, photos via WTA Tour)

Serena Williams extended her winning streak to ten matches by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-3 in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup. In her second straight final Williams will face Samantha Stosur.

The fourth-seeded Azarenka reached the semifinals having lost just six games, but Williams is in her Grand Slam-winning form ahead of the US Open. The American won eight of the last 11 points in the first set and 16 of the last 19 points in the second.

Samantha Stosur fell out of the Top 10 on Monday but with a 6-2 5-7 6-2 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup the Australian will regain the spot. Radwanska was on a nine-match winning streak, having won Carlsbad, and at the Rogers Cup she hadn't dropped a set all week.

Williams and Stosur have played each other five times so far, and Williams leads their head-to-head record 3-2. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Serena Williams' comeback is ever more impressive. Every day the American is reminding us of how unprecedented tennis player she is, and even though she looked tired in her last match, a win is a win, and she is now only two matches away from winning her second straight title in only her fourth tournament since a year-long layoff which included a persistent foot injury and a serious problem with a blood clot in her lungs. Williams reached the semifinals of the Premier-level Rogers Cup by overcoming also unseeded Lucie Safarova 4-6 6-3 6-2. Victoria Azarenka will be Williams' next opponent. In the quarterfinals Azarenka ended the run of 135th-ranked qualifier Galina Voskoboeva, who eliminated Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta and Maria Sharapova from the tournament.

The other semifinal will feature Samantha Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska. Stosur took out Roberta Vinci, who scored major upset early in the tournament by beating world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and later she defeated Ana Ivanovic. Radwanska reached the final four with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Andrea Petkovic. (photo courtesy of FIJI Water)

The Grand Slam-like field at the Rogers Cup is rapidly losing its biggest stars. Six major champions were in action on Thursday and only one survived – the mighty Serena Williams. The American returned only recently to competitive action and has already clinched a Premier-level title (Stanford) and is steadily making her way through the Toronto event.

Ana Ivanovic (Roland Garros 2008 winner), Li Na (Roland Garros 2011 winner), Petra Kvitova (Wimbledon 2011 winner), Francesca Schiavone (Roland Garros 2010 winner) and Maria Sharapova (three-time Grand Slam champion) all lost in straight sets in the third round of the Rogers Cup.

After defeating Alona Bondarenko 6-0 6-3 in the first round and Julia Goerges 6-1 7-6(7) in the second, Williams overcame Zheng Jie in an entertaining third round match for a 4-6 6-3 6-3 victory. The world No.82 Zheng, who is trying to improve her lost ranking, was two points from a 4-2 lead in the third set when Williams did her signature thing – brought her best game when it mattered the most.

Williams' opponent in the quarterfinals will be Lucie Safarova, who defeated eighth seed Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-3 in the third round. Other quarterfinal pairs: Roberta Vinci vs. Samantha Stosur, Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Andrea Petkovic and Galina Voskoboeva vs. Victoria Azarenka. (photo courtesy of FIJI Water)

Li Na's French Open title propelled her in the world of sponsorships and fashion. As you may have noticed, I'm all for it, it's refreshing to have an Asian in the mix. The image above is from the Chinese edition of the Marie Claire magazine. Doesn't Li look stunning?

The 29-year-old is earning nice amounts of money by virtue of her tennis success and she finished 8th in the Forbes list of the highest-paid female athletes, however, the Chinese prefers spending her husband's money  "I still like to use my husband's credit card because I want to save my money," Li joked.

Even though her earnings in a year have been estimated at $8 million, the greatest Asian tennis star still hasn't found time to indulge in shopping:

"Right now I am always busy doing many things for the sponsors and I do not have time to enjoy shopping. So maybe at the end of the year I will find time."

Today at the Rogers Cup Li advanced to the third round with a walkover from Peng Shuai, who had to withdraw because of a left hip injury. (via Forty Deuce)

Italian Roberta Vinci is today enjoying the best day of her life having scored the biggest victory of her career by upsetting world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the Dane's opener at the Premier-level $2,050,000 Rogers Cup in Toronto. Wozniacki clinched last year's Rogers Cup title in Montreal by winning her semifinal and final match in one day.

After losing the first set against the 22nd-ranked Vinci, Wozniacki surged to a 5-1 lead, and just as it looked the match would go to the third set, Vinci won amazing six straight games to defeat the top seed 6-4 7-5.

Vinci has won three WTA titles this season: Barcelona, 's-Hertogenbosch and Budapest. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Kim Clijsters was playing her first match since ’s-Hertogenbosch in June and a right ankle injury, but her comeback lasted for only a set and a half as she retired from her opening match at the Rogers Cup against Zheng Jie with left abdominal injury. Clijsters won the first set 6-3, and retired in the second at 1-2.

Clijsters already had an ultrasound and she was diagnosed with partial tear in her left stomach muscle, which she first felt during her warmup for the match.

Serena Williams’ comeback is still fresh and she has already clinched a title at Stanford and in her first-round match against Alona Bondarenko at the Rogers Cup Serena won stunning 100% of points on first serve and 76% on the second. Also, in the 6-0 first-set win Serena lost only four points. Not to mention that the set lasted just 16 minutes! Final result: 6-0 6-3.

Ana Ivanovic also advanced to the second round, not troubled by qualifier Zhang Shuai en route to a 6-1 6-1 victory. Another Serbian, Bojana Jovanovski, got past the first round, but it was a retirement win – Jelena Dokic withdrew while trailing 2-0 with right shoulder injury. Last week’s titlist at Carlsbad Agnieszka Radwanska also won her first round, with a 6-4 6-1 win over Elena Vesnina. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Monday at the Rogers Cup was a bad day for seeded players, as only one advanced and three of the other four fell to qualifiers in their opening matches.

The first in action was the winning seed, Samantha Stosur, but even her victory came only after she lost the first set 6-4 to Ayumi Morita. Final score: 4-6 6-2 6-3.

No.9 seed Marion Bartoli had won 19 of her last 23 matches, including her Eastbourne title, and had a perfect 4-0 head-to-head record against Galina Voskoboeva, but in the first round of the Rogers Cup the Kazakh qualifier was better and took Bartoli out 6-3 6-3. It is Voskoboeva's first Top 10 victory and at the recent Baku Cup she played her first WTA semifinals.

Seed No.12 Svetlana Kuznetsova committed 50 unforced errors en route to losing to qualifier Simona Halep, 4-6 6-4 6-3. No.14 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the first set against qualifier Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez before losing the match 3-6 6-4 6-1.

Jelena Jankovic, seeded 15th, played her first match since a first-round loss at Wimbledon and it was another defeat, a 6-1 6-3 one to Julia Goerges. (via WTA Tour, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

The 20-year-old cruised to a 6-2 6-3 victory over Kuznetsova in the semifinals without dropping serve and only hours later played for the title against Vera Zvonareva, who reached the final after Victoria Azarenka retired due to a blister on her left foot at 7-6(6) 1-0 down.

Wozniacki disposed of two of the highest-ranked Russian players in one day as she followed the win over world No.12 Kuznetsova with a convincing 6-3 6-2 win over eighth-ranked Zvonareva.

Wozniacki has collected her ninth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title and third of the year (after Ponte Vedra Beach and Copenhagen). She and Kim Clijsters are now the only two players that have won three titles this season. The two faced each other in the last year's final of the US Open, and this time they will be the Top 2 seeds at the Grand Slam. (photo via Rogers Cup)

Rogers Cup semifinals were supposed to be played on Saturday but we only saw two games of the match between Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova when the rain interfered. There were attempts and plans to resume play later on Saturday and on Sunday, but the rain wouldn’t permit it and the latest official news is that both the singles semifinals will take place on Monday, August 23 at 10 am local time. The singles final is scheduled for 1:30 pm, only three and a half hours after the start of the semifinals.

The semifinal between Wozniacki and Kuznetsova will be played on Centre Court, while Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva will face each other on National Bank Court. (source: Rogers Cup)