Serena Williams overshadows all, from the world No. 1 to the other Americans in the U.S. Open field. And every one of them understands it.

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek drilled American Sloan Stephens 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to set up a third-round date with another U.S. woman, Lauren Davis. And while there won’t be a referendum on the state of American tennis until Williams retires, that time is coming.

Swiatek is a two-time French Open champion with a WTA Tour-leading 50 victories this year, but the Pole has still flown under the radar. Or more accurately, in Williams’ shadow, like everybody else.

“Maybe a little bit, yeah, for sure. … But I’d say it doesn’t really matter for me,” said Swiatek, hoping to face Williams in the final. “I mean, Serena totally deserves it and it’s pretty obvious for me that she’s going to be in the spotlight in this tournament. That’s kind of her time right now.”

But what happens to the American game when Williams’ time is over? There are five American women in the top 25, but with Stephens gone, Williams is the only U.S. player — man or woman — alive in the draw who’s won a major.

At 40 — with Friday’s third-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic potentially her last — Williams may be the greatest of all time, but that doesn’t mean she’s not running out of time.

Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champ, still has all the skills but didn’t show a lot of fight. She could never build any momentum against Swiatek’s forehand, lasting just 74 minutes and falling to 0-10 against No. 1-ranked players.

After a first set that saw Stephens hit just three winners to 10 unforced errors, she got broken right out of the gate to open the second, thanks to her own double fault.

She got broken again at love to go down 3-0, and her halfhearted return into the net brought it to a merciful end.

No. 12 Coco Gauff faces No. 20 Madison Keys in the third round, guaranteeing an American woman in the fourth round, but also having one fall by the wayside Friday.

Eighth-seeded Jessica Pegula beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 6-4 in the second round, and will face Chinese qualifier Yue Yuan. She came back several hours later to team up with Gauff for a doubles win. And Pegula admitted that Williams has created a must-see atmosphere and palpable buzz in the locker room.

“If we don’t have a night match, we all turn on the TV and we watch because we want to see what’s going on, what’s going to happen, how’s she playing,” said Pegula. “Same Serena, but at the same time more vintage Serena. … That’s what we do. We go back, we turn it on because we want to watch her play. That’s just the impression she leaves on everyone in the locker room. We’re all tuning in to see how she’s doing. That speaks a lot.”

No. 29 Alison Riske-Amritraj faces China’s Xiyu Wang and No. 31 Shelby Rogers plays fifth-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.

No. 19 Danielle Collins took on Spaniard Cristina Bucsa on Thursday night in the second round, with Stephens and Amanda Anisimova the only ones gone from that top-25 quintet.

“It’s super cool to have such a great group of people,” said Gauff. “With [Pegula], I was talking to her about it in Toronto, how excited we were to play doubles here just because she’s the No. 1 American, and I don’t know where my ranking is now, but I’m like No. 2 or 3. It’s nice to play in the U.S. You definitely feel it with the fans and everything. We’re a pretty patriotic people; people come out to support you.”