Simona Halep won her first Wimbledon championship title and kept Serena Williams from winning her eighth crown as she beat Williams 6-2, 6-2 in the final on Centre Court on Saturday. 

This is the second Grand Slam championship Halep has won.

Williams was trying to win her record-equaling 24th Grand Slam singles title, but she failed in a final for the third time. Williams lost to Angelique Kerber in last year's Wimbledon final and lost to Naomi Osaka in the championship match at the U.S. Open.

Williams still holds the record for most major singles titles in the professional era with 23, one more than Steffi Graf. But Margaret Court, who won 13 of her Grand Slam singles titles in the amateur era, has 24 overall.

Halep, who won last year's French Open title, had only three unforced errors to Williams's 25 in the final.

Halep says Grand Slam losses help her beat Williams

Halep, 27, is only the second Romanian woman to win a major after Virginia Ruzici claimed the 1978 French Open. Ruzici is now her manager.

"Today I dared to dream... and my dream came true! It was the greatest match of my life," she wrote on her Twitter after the match.

Halep figured her past problems in Grand Slam finals which allowed her to come through against Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

Halep lost the first three times she appeared in a major final, twice at the French Open and once at the Australian Open.

But now she has won two in a row — last year at Roland Garros, and Saturday at the All England Club, where she made only three unforced errors while beating Williams 6-2, 6-2 in under an hour.

Halep said her losses "helped me for sure to be different" on this occasion.

While nerves could affect a player, Halep added, she learned to think of it as "a normal match."

Before the Paris final, Halep said she "would be okay" if she lost again, as "no-one would have died."

Small country, big dreams

Halep became world number one in August 2017 and her 2018 French Open win over Sloane Stephens made her the first player to win her first Grand Slam title while holding the top ranking.

A huge star in her home country — Halep has appeared on the front cover of Romania's "Elle" magazine and opened a restaurant called "SH" in her hometown of Constanta, which lies on the Black Sea.

"The fact that I am able to win maybe will give an inspiration also to Romanians, the kids, that it's possible, even if you come from a little country, it's possible if you work and if you believe."

"My mom said when I was 10 that if I want to do something in tennis I have to play in the final at Wimbledon," she told Centre Court.

"I had lots of nerves, my stomach wasn't very well."

She added: "I said at the start of the tournament that one of my motivations was to win and become a lifetime member of the club!"

She only follows two people on Twitter — one is former coach Darren Cahill and the other, bizarrely, is three-time world snooker champion Mark Selby of England.

"I have no idea how you play snooker. But I appreciate him," said Halep.

"He's been in Romania a few times. I met him. Also I have a snooker ball signed from him. That's why I follow him."