New York ? With win after win, all of Lindsay Davenport’s talk about retirement sounds more and more premature.

Now she’s two victories from a second U.S. Open title and the No. 1 ranking.

After waiting out a day of rain, Davenport beat Shinobu Asagoe of Japan, 6-1, 6-1, in 46 minutes Wednesday night to reach the Open’s semifinals in a match that began with about 100 people in the seats at 9,645-capacity Louis Armstrong Stadium.

At least she finished. The showdown between two-time champion Andre Agassi and No. 1 Roger Federer was stopped by showers in the first game of the fourth set, with Federer ahead, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. No. 5 Tim Henman led No. 22 Dominik Hrbaty, 6-1, 7-5, 4-5, when their quarterfinal was interrupted. The matches were scheduled to resume today.

“It’s not a total shock to tennis players that we have to go through this,” Davenport said. “At this point, I just didn’t care if there were 100 people there or 10 people, I just wanted to play.”

After a couple of seasons marred by assorted injuries, four years since her last appearance in a Grand Slam final, and now 28 and married, Davenport spoke earnestly at Wimbledon about quitting the sport.

Since losing to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals at the All England Club, though, Davenport has won 22 matches in a row.

Davenport’s next opponent is No. 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated No. 14 Nadia Petrova, 7-6 (4), 6-3. It means both women’s semifinals will be United States vs. Russia: No. 8 Jennifer Capriati meets No. 6 Elena Dementieva in the other. In the main men’s match, heavy rain returned with Agassi serving at deuce to start the fourth set. After 1 hour, 40 minutes of waiting, Agassi, Federer and the fans were sent home.