Magdalena Maleeva, the 14th ranked player in the world fled court 18 in tears. She had just been thrown into the lions cage. Bullied and mauled in front of a full house by Serena Williams, Maleeva was wiping the tears from her cheeks for one of the longest walks of her life, the 100 metres from the court along the crowded boulevard to the refuge of the players locker room.

As humiliations go this 49 minute exercise in dominance scarcely belonged in the fourth round of the biggest tournament in the world. No doubt the 26 year old Bulgarian believed that if she prayed to the saints and played the tennis of her life then she stood a chance.

With the Williams sisters cranking up things don't work out that way. First you survive their game, then you hope they submit to frustration if you can hang in long enough and then, maybe then, you create doubts and begin to make ground. The first 6-2 set lasted 23 minutes, the second 6-1 raid just three minutes longer.

Bigger sis Venus was even more ruthless. Last year's winner allowed Nadia Petrova, ranked 42nd in the world, two games in the first set and zero in the second. She took just two minutes longer than Serena.

Unlike most matches both contests were a function of only one player, a factor the two have become used to this year. Venus has conceded a mere 16 games in eight sets to reach the quarter finals, Serena a miserly 11 games.

Such ease, however, will come to an end next round as Serena faces the serious challenge of Jennifer Capriati. While Capriati, going for her third straight Grand Slam, has played a few loose sets on the way, yesterday's 6-1, 6-2 dismissal of Sandrine Testud was timely and in the Williams' mould of ferocity.

Capriati similarly returned to the locker room in less than an hour against the 19th best player in the world. The string of results will, no doubt, prompt questions once again about the real depth of talent in the women's game. There are two clear levels with the Williams, Davenport, Hingis and Capriati at one and just Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin credibly spanning the divide.

"I feel real good about it (facing Capriati). The last time I didn't play (well). I think someone was impostering (sic) me.

I was hitting a lot of errors and going crazy," said Serena of the last time she lost to Capriati in the French Open.

"I haven't watched Serena play at all this tournament," said Capriati. "I assume she is playing really well because of her scores and I expect she's going to be pretty eager especially against me because I just beat her twice. She probably wants to get revenge."

No doubt, as will Lindsay Davenport against Venus if she can come through against Clijsters. Clijsters and Davenport meet in the quarter finals having advanced yesterday in straight sets. Davenport, last year's finalist and the winner in 1999, finally brought an end to Jelena Dokic's bustling run. The match had an inevitable feel about it, the 25 year old's heavy ground strokes and hard, flat serve proving to be too heavy an arsenal for the less robust Dokic.

While Dokic believed the match to turn on some big points, the gap was greater although the question of mobility is still facing Davenport.

Clijsters, who didn't have it as she wished against American Meghann Shaughnessy, will deliberately move Davenport around the court. Needing two tiebreaks to decide the tight match, Clijsters' power is a notch higher than that of Dokic and she has shown her self to be nerveless on big points. She'll need that.

Venus Williams next match gives her an opportunity to demonstrate that all of Natahlie Tauziat's talk of retirement is not premature. Williams in current form could make the 10th seeded Tauziat's decision all the more easy. Not one for the sqeamish. This one against the 33-year-old could be messy.