Playing on No.1 Court that propelled her into tennis stardom, the world No.313 Gauff never endangered Halep, even though she stayed competitive when facing deficits and saved two match points to prolong the encounter by one game.
The match opened by an exchange of breaks, initiated by Halep, and even though the Romanian made three double faults in the fourth game, she did hold serve for 2-2, and that was about the last time that Halep was endangered in the 42-minute first set, if we exclude a couple of good winners by Gauff on break points in the fifth game, which the teenager eventually surrendered.