WTA Elite Trophy: Julia Goerges beats CoCo Vandeweghe to clinch second title of year

Zhuhai: Germany’s Julia Goerges stormed to victory at the WTA Elite Trophy on Sunday, hammering No 2 seed CoCo Vandeweghe in the final to claim her second title of the year. The 29-year-old made an unexpected comeback in the first set to take down the fiery Vandeweghe 7-5, 6-1 in Zhuhai, China, as fellow German and tennis legend Steffi Graf watched from the stands. [caption id=“attachment_4194325” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Julia Goerges had earlier won the Kremlin Cup. Image courtesy: Twitter @WTAEliteTrophy[/caption] With the title, Goerges is set to end the season with a career-high ranking of World No 14. She joins other Elite Trophy winners Petra Kvitova and Venus Williams. Vandeweghe started off strong in the first set — easily breaking Goerges in the second game and holding serve in the next to give her a 3-0 lead. But Goerges clung on, finally breaking serve in the ninth game and setting herself up for a fantastic comeback. A fuming Vandeweghe shouted and threw her racquet on the ground in frustration before finally losing the set 7-5. Goerges went on to dominate in the second to win seven games in a row as Vandeweghe seemed to lose focus. The German claimed the match with a third break of serve in the second set. Goerges had enjoyed a smooth road to the final, seeing off Slovakia’s No 1 Magdalena Rybarikova, top seed Kristina Mladenovic and Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova — also in straight sets. But it wasn’t all bad news for Vandeweghe, who, by reaching the final, had already overtaken France’s Mladenovic to secure her place in the world top 10 — her final goal of the year.