American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don't come a hangin' around my door
I don't want to see your face no more
                                  -- Guess Who

NEW YORK -- It's easy to be blinded by the dazzling light of fashion here at the National Tennis Center -- the now notorious black cat suit and more than a few midriffs.

	Serena Williams plays Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic in the fourth round.

Lost in all of this fashion folderol is this enduring truth: The American women have got some serious game. And it's not all Williams sisters.

Feast your eyes on this factoid, all of you red-white-and-blue flag wavers: American women have won 12 of the last 13 Grand Slam singles titles. While the American men are doing better here than those from any other country, they have won only four of the last 13 Slams.

Either Martina Navratilova or Chris Evert were the top-ranked players on the WTA circuit for 12 straight seasons, but today's core of U.S. athletes are deeper in their dominance, according to Navratilova.

"They're good -- they're really good," Navratilova said Saturday. "It's probably the best group, talent-wise, we've seen from the same country at the same time."

Five of the top six seeds in the women's draw are Americans -- No. 1 Serena Williams, No. 2 Venus Williams, No. 3 Jennifer Capriati, No. 4 Lindsay Davenport and No. 6 Monica Seles. They are all 3-0 and find themselves in the Round of 16. Based on seeding, all five should advance to the quarterfinals.

Chanda Rubin, the tournament's No. 14 seed, is also through to the fourth round. The bad news? Venus Williams is her next opponent. Amy Frazier upset the No. 16 seeded Magdalena Maleeva to move ahead. Lisa Raymond, who lost to Rubin, Meghann Shaughnessy, who fell to Capriati, and Bea Bielik all reached the third round.

So that's seven American women sitting in the Round of 16.

And while there has been much ado about the state of the American men's game, the fact remains that only five U.S. players -- Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, James Blake and Jan-Michael Gambill -- were among the 32 players who made it to the third round.

How ridiculously good have the American women been here in Flushing? Witness Navratilova.

On Friday night, Navratilova, who has been a U.S. citizen for 21 years, teamed with Leander Paes to defeat the top seeds in mixed doubles, Mark Woodbridge and Rennae Stubbs. Navratilova, who helped define American women's tennis with Evert in the 1970s and '80s, is closing in on her 46th birthday.

The women's game has been criticized for being predictable, but that simply means the great players are significantly better than the good players and they win when they're supposed to. Only six women's players have managed to reach a Grand Slam final over the past two years -- the Williamses, Capriati, Hingis and the two Belgians, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. On the men's side, 13 different players have occupied those 14 spots; only Lleyton Hewitt has managed two finals (both victories).

	To advance, Jennifer Capriati will have to eliminate another American, Amy Frazier.

There were 28 American women in this year's U.S. Open draw and so far they have won 28 of 48 matches.

On Saturday, when Blake was featured in the day's most anticipated match, against Hewitt, the defending champion, the American women were showcased early and often. The nighttime session in Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time was an entirely female lineup featuring Capriati vs. Shaughnessy and the American team of Laura Granville and Jennifer Hopkins vs. Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova.

Venus Williams dispatched Germany's Martina Muller 6-1, 6-2. Williams has lost all of six games in three matches. Monica Seles, born in Yugoslavia but a U.S. citizen since 1994, struggled but beat Yoon Jeong Cho of Korea in three sets. Two matches were all-American affairs: Rubin vs. Raymond and Capriati vs. Shaughnessy.

While Davenport and Seles have persevered through injuries and adversity, consider the relatively anonymous Rubin. Incredibly, this is her 12th professional season, and at age 26, one of her best.

Rubin struggled last year with knee and Achilles injuries but has rallied back to form, reaching the final at Madrid (losing to Seles) and winning at Eastbourne, the Wimbledon warm-up event. In Los Angeles, she recorded her biggest win ever, over Serena Williams -- ending a 21-match winning streak -- and then beat Jelena Dokic and Davenport for her second win of the season. She took out Raymond on Saturday by winning seven of nine points in the first-set tiebreaker and coasted to a 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Frazier, who will turn 30 next month, is in her 13th season. She came into The Open ranked No. 73 on the WTA Tour, but upset Ai Sugiyama in the second round before taking out Maleeva.

The future was represented this past week by Mashona Washington, the younger sister of MaliVai Washington, and NCAA champion Bea Bielik. Washington was granted a wild card and defeated Gala Leon Garcia in the first round. Bielik made it to the third round in this, her first professional tournament, and actually had some chances before losing to Henin.

Bielik, who grew up on Long Island and attended Wake Forest, will now play the Tour full-time. Those two wins here pushed her ranking to roughly No. 250, from somewhere in the thousands. That, she said, isn't nearly good enough.

"This is my first tournament," she said. "I can't expect to be in the top 20 right off the bat. That's the goal, obviously.

"I'm ready to go out there and work and keep producing results and get myself up to the top."

Certainly, she has more than a few role models.

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.