Wimbledon 2019 - Coco Gauff’s dream run ended by Simona Halep

After becoming the youngest player to reach the main draw in the tournament’s history, Gauff defied the odds to reach the second week at Wimbledon after beating Venus Williams, Magdalena Rybarikova and Polona Hercog.

But in seventh seed Halep, the highest-ranked opponent she has faced in her fledgling career, Gauff ultimately met her match, bowing out to a standing ovation and rapturous applause after 77 minutes on Court One.

Halep goes on to face Shuai Zhang for a place in the semi-finals, which the 2018 French Open champion last reached at SW19 in 2014.

Gauff traded early breaks with former world number one Halep, but the Romanian turned the screw as the first set progressed, breaking twice to take command of the match.

Halep then motored ahead in the second set, only for Gauff to bring it back on serve.

However, Halep dug deep to break Gauff to 15, and after squandering two match points on her opponent’s serve, the 27-year-old made no mistake when serving it out for the match.

Up next for Halep is a showdown with Zhang on Tuesday, while Gauff departs after a mesmerising, history-marking week in her first-ever Grand Slam.