Lindsay Davenport met Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy earlier this year in the Australian Open semifinals, and the exhausted American barely survived. She had arrived home the previous night at 10:00 p.m. after playing a three-hour quarterfinal match against Alicia Molik and then a doubles match. It was a brutal day of tennis, and the steady – though hardly threatening – Dechy nearly took advantage of it the following afternoon, coming within a few points of an upset.

Yesterday, a well-rested and healthy Davenport steamrolled Dechy to reach the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open, at the same time blasting another hole in a women’s tournament riddled with blowouts and snoozers.

It was Davenport’s best performance of the tournament, and a signal that the smart money ought to be placed on her the rest of the way. In under an hour, she blew Dechy off the court, pounding 30 winners and committing just eight unforced errors in a 6-0, 6-3 victory.

For fans, however, the match was the latest in a series of unappealing drubbings. Of the eight players in the women’s quarterfinals, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Nadia Petrova, Venus Williams, Amelie Mauresmo, and Davenport have yet to lose a set. Elena Dementieva, Davenport’s next opponent, has lost just one set after her 6-4, 6-3 victory yesterday over 11th-seeded Patty Schnyder. In the first entertaining match among top players, Mary Pierce scored a bruising 6-3, 6-4 victory last night over 2003 champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, who was hardly at her best in firing 10 double faults.

“It seems like the top players are really stepping up and have been getting through with relative ease,” Davenport said. “I think normally there [are] a few more close matches in there.”

So far in Flushing, the men have had all the fun. Over the Labor Day weekend alone, there were eight five-set matches among the men, most of them filled with drama, momentum swings, spectacular shots, and even comic relief.

As for the women, sleepy matches have revived the old complaint that women’s tennis lacks depth. But clearly, there is more depth in the women’s game these days than ever before, as more players are fit, well trained, and hungry for prize money that has grown immensely.

Perhaps something else is at work, something more subtle that Venus Williams touched upon after dispatching her sister on Sunday in straight sets in the most disappointing match of the tournament, a festival of unforced errors that sent fans streaming from the stands in the second set.

“It’s pretty rare that we scout people,” Williams said. “Most people are definitely playing a similar game. Most people really aren’t breaking out of the box in playing, maybe like a Fabrice Santoro type. There’s not really that many players like that.”

Santoro, the forehand-slicing, behind-the-back volleying, one-man magic act from France, is inimitable, as we all saw Friday evening in his electrifying match against Roger Federer. And while it is often lamented that the men’s game has fewer and fewer places for artists of this kind, there are at least a few remaining, as well as a number of players who, despite being baseliners, rely on spin and changes of pace more than brute force. Take, for example, Sanguinetti. It is indeed a rare player who can reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open by hitting the ball as slowly as most club players.

Yet few in the women’s game even attempt to connect with their inner Santoro. As a result, we often see two women firing away at each other, with little regard for guile.

There are bright spots. Amelie Mauresmo’s volleys and loopy strokes are generally pleasing to the eye, even if she is losing just five games, like she did yesterday against the struggling Elena Likhovtseva, 6-1, 6-4. Of course, Mauresmo is hardly ever on display in finals – she’s reached just one Grand Slam final in her career – and hence has not earned a place in the hearts of casual viewers.

Justine Henin-Hardenne, owner of the prettiest backhand in tennis, has the most versatile game on the tour, but of late she has played with less range than she once did. Now that her forehand is such a weapon, Henin-Hardenne often remains at the baseline. She has been candid about her occasional reluctance to come forward, saying that her coach wants her to approach, but that sometimes she cannot find the proper moment. Last night, she was downright ragged.

Beyond these two elegant players, however, the differences are small among the rest of the pack. Anastasia Myskina is entertaining for her scrappiness, and Dementieva for a phobia to which any hacker can relate: fear of the double fault. Otherwise, there are too many women playing the same brand of hard-hitting tennis, and when like things collide on a tennis court, drama is rarely the result.

The rest of the women’s tournament, at least, offers some hope. Davenport and Dementieva will be a slugfest, but there’s nothing like a 65 mph second serve to liven the mood. Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams should prove far more entertaining than Williams vs. Williams, since Clijsters is as athletic as Williams and will not let her off the hook with routine mistakes. Mary Pierce versus Mauresmo should be worth a look, too, as Pierce’s power contrasts nicely with Mauresmo’s finesse. Henin-Hardenne versus Mauresmo should be the best of them all, as anyone who saw their entertaining threesetter in Toronto late last month could attest. Even Maria Sharapova’s contest against fellow Russian Nadia Petrova might pass the entertainment test, if Petrova’s nerves hold up.

At last, the women’s tournament is about to begin.