Coco Gauff breezes past Britain’s Sonay Kartal in straight-set victory to reach Wimbledon’s last-16 – before American star heaps praise on world No 278’s run in the tournament

Gauff let out a scream of relief after taking a tight opening set against the world No278 but raced through the second, dropping only a couple of points on her serve in reaching the fourth round.

The second seed hasn’t dropped a set at this year’s Championship and is a live contender to repeat her maiden Grand Slam triumph at the last US Open.

Even so, the 20-year-old admitted playing a home favourite on No1 Court had brought its challenges.

‘I was a little bit nervous going in because I knew you guys would be for her which is totally understandable,’ said the American.

She played at a high level in the first set so I never felt settled. I was just trying to make less mistakes. Then I found it and was able to do well.

‘I’m happy she had such a good tournament and hopefully will be back for more.’

Kartal needed to win three matches to get even make the first round of the main draw and the 22-year-old based in Brighton has been one of the most heartwarming stories at SW19 particularly as she’d needed a stay in hospital in May and feared missing the rest of the season.

‘I am proud of the whole tournament. I’d never come up against anyone like Coco before,’ she said.

‘This week was a bit unexpected, I’m not going to lie. There will be a few schedule changes now. It’s important for me to play the bigger tournaments to develop.’

Instead of a scheduled ITF event, Kartal will rest in preparation for US Open qualifiers and should have time to add a Wimbledon-themed tattoo to her collection.

It’ll be something significant to this place. My team have thrown a few ideas around like strawberries,’ she revealed.

Kartal lost her opening service game but the partisan crowd roared her back into contention and two errors from Gauff enabled the break-back at 4-3.

Gauff then broke decisively at four-all after successfully challenging a line call on the baseline. The way she hollered at her box after completing the opening set underlined it had been tough.

In contrast, the second set was a cakewalk. Kartal’s level visibly dropped as she tried to keep pace with her big-hitting opponent. She dropped serve to love in the opening game and only took one game to deuce, Gauff finishing the job off after 61 minutes with an ace.