Only almost a year of tennis, play she can miss two tournaments and then win back-to-back titles. Only she can be ranked 80th in the world and go unbeaten in 11 straight matches. Only she can make it look this easy.

"It's not that easy," said Samantha Stosur, who lost to Williams 6-4, 6-2 in the Rogers Cup final on Sunday.

In case you were wondering, Serena Williams is back. She has actually been back for two months now. But after winning a tournament last week in Stanford, Calif., and again in Toronto on Sunday, she appears back to being the Williams that dominated the sport for so long.

Perhaps that is why she keeps telling reporters that she is only 26. On the court, anyway, she sure looks like she has turned back the clock.

"My game is, you know, here," said Williams, who should jump to 31st in the overall rankings with Sunday's victory. "I feel like there is a lot of improvements I want to make, you know, being able to close out big points and winning on big points and capitalizing on that. You know, still returning a little bit better, but overall it's solid.

"I want to definitely keep it up and not, you know, go down. Definitely don't want to go down from here. I only think I want to go up."

That Williams believes she can improve, that she no longer is going through the motions, that she is healthy and passionate and cares about tennis are good things for fans. The sport missed the American star when she was gone. And this week, when the top seeds kept falling because of injury or inconsistent play, it was Williams who saved the tournament from being boring.

For opponents, however, having Williams back essentially means that the party is over.

Williams didn't play her best tennis this week. At times, her footwork was clumsy. Her serve sometimes betrayed her. Lesser opponents were able to win a set off her. But as the week went on, she got better and better, gained more confidence, became more dominant.

"I think for me to be able to win, I had to play close to my best tennis," said Stosur of Australia, who had beaten Williams in two of their previous five matches.

"I wasn't quite at that mark. You know, I think I played well. Even the service games that I lost, except for one or two, I had game point.

"So if I look at it like that, there wasn't too much in it. But obviously, she's a great player and played very well today."

Indeed, Stosur was every bit the worthy opponent. She held serve for the first four games, firing three aces and making Williams play fetch around the court. But with the score tied 4-4, Stosur made two little mistakes - clipping the net on two consecutive points and Williams went up 5-4 and then held serve to win the set 6-4.

Just like that, the match was over.

Williams broke Stosur to begin the second set and again to go up 4-1. At one point, Stosur took off her trademark sunglasses to try and change things up.

But it was no use. Up 5-2, Williams served four aces to win the match.

"I kept thinking: 'hit an ace, hit an ace, hit an ace, hit an ace,' because I knew that at that point, I didn't want to hit too many shots, because I felt like I was getting a little tight."

Williams, who had also won in Toronto in 2001, said "for whatever reason I really wanted to win this event."

The reason could be that with the U.S. Open coming up at the end of the month, she's rounding into form. She looks unbeatable. At the very least, she should be one of the favourites.

"I consider myself a favourite to just do what I can do best and hopefully, that's winning the Open, I mean, obviously I want to. I never go in as a favourite. I feel like I'm still the underdog.

"I still, you know, I went through a lot of things physically and mentally and emotionally, and going through so much, I'm just taking it one day at a time and kind of like one match at a time and just going with it."