Serena Williams crushes Suarez Navarro to win 8th Miami Open

Serena Williams poses with the trophy at Crabdon Park after winning the Women's Final of the Miami Open presented by Itau against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during Day 13 at Crandon Park Tennis Center on April 4, 2015 in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Serena Williams of the United States shakes hands at the net after her straight sets victory against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the final of the Miami Open. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

Miami Open Tennis - Day 13

lanked by Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams poses with the Butch Buchholz Trophy after defeating Navarro during the final of the Miami Open. (Matthew Stockman, Getty Images)

Serena Williams poses with the trophy after winning the women's final of the Miami Open on April …

Only three women have won all four major titles in one year -- Maureen Connolly Brinker in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988.

Serena Williams celebrates after her straight sets victory against Carla Suarez Navarro in the final during the Miami Open on April 4, 2015 in Key Biscayne, Florida

 Serena Williams celebrates after reaching the Miami Open final to continue her unbeaten run in 2015

 Williams was taken the distance by world No 2 Simona Halep in the semi finals in Florida

The world No 1 has a win record of 17-0 since the start of the year and looks unbeatable

Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro is unlikely to provide much resistance against Williams in Saturday's final

The 33-year-old was presented with a celebratory cake in Miami after winning her 700th career match

Can Serena Williams be beaten? Only by her own body, it seems. There is just one blot on the world No 1’s record this season: her retirement from Indian Wells with knee trouble.

Over the fortnight since that disappointment, Williams has been unable to practise with her usual intensity. At times, she has appeared to be battling herself on the court. And yet it made no difference in the end: she still romped to the Miami Open title with a 6-2, 6-0 evisceration of Carla Suárez Navarro on Saturday afternoon. Even sober judges are now discussing the possibility of a calendar grand slam.

The only serious threat to her hegemony would seem to be her age: she will turn 34 in September, and is already the oldest woman to hold the No 1 ranking. Physical niggles are a fact of life for any tennis player, and all the more so as they move towards the end of their careers. But over the past fortnight, Williams showed how far she has come mentally under the guidance of Patrick Mouratoglou.

She has always been unstoppable on her best days, yet her Achilles’ heel used to be a tendency to freak out when unable to find her optimum level. Now she has learned to fight through her flat periods, to increase her safety margins when the ball is not obeying her every command. She has finally understood that, even playing at 80 per cent, she is still too good for most of the competition.

“I had to improvise in some of my matches,” said Williams as she posed with the Miami trophy. “Quite frankly, I had to take some pace off today because I wasn’t serving the way I normally serve. I’ve just been dealing with injuries, and when I’m practising I’m hitting groundstrokes and just not hitting enough serves.

“On the flip side, it’s good to know that I can win relying on my groundstrokes or relying on other shots. It’s not just one shot that makes me good. It’s an all-court game.”

It would be wrong to say that Williams was not tested in Miami, her home tournament which she has now won eight times. Her semi-final against world No 3 Simona Halep was a cracker, the best contest of the WTA season so far.

And yet there is a sense that she is only extending her lead over the chasing pack. After a multifarious 2014, in which eight different players occupied the eight spaces in grand-slam finals, the women’s game feels more like a monopoly this season.