FULL VERSION Gomez vs Agassi French Open 1990

In the space of one short afternoon, Andres Gomez, who sometimes has been too patient for his own good, finally secured the goal he has worked a tennis lifetime to achieve when he defeated Andre Agassi, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, and earned the right to reign as champion of the 1990 French Open.

Gomez, a veteran of 27 Grand Slam events without a title to show for them, said the honor was worth the wait but was painfully long in arriving.

''I've been coming here for 12 years and I always dreamed about this moment; it just took too long,'' he said after accepting his trophy and $370,000 in prize money. ''By far this is the best tennis I've ever played, I've gone a step farther in my career.'' Gomez, who had been accused of being a congenital underachiever in high-pressure scenarios, moved to a career-high ranking of fourth in the world with this victory.

''Today I didn't panic on the big points, I didn't panic when I was down, and I always had the will to come back, and that's what big tennis is all about,'' Gomez said. ''Maybe in the past I didn't play the big points good enough, and that's what changed this time.''

The Ecuadorean also said Ivan Lendl's decision to skip this tournament had been a most fortuitous one for him: Gomez was on the verge of retiring from tennis last summer when he learned that Lendl planned to forgo this event in order to prepare for Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam event he has never won. Since the French Open happened to be the only Grand Slam tournament Gomez had dreamed of winning, and one where he'd been detoured three times in the quarterfinals by Lendl, he hustled back to the drawing board to prime himself to peak here.

Agassi, too, had primed himself for this event and had defeated Michael Chang, the defending champion, along the path to the first Grand Slam final of his career. At the age of 20, Agassi imagined himself to be a decade fitter and faster than the 30-year-old Gomez and hoped to wear him down in a long match. But the unusually timid tennis played by Agassi in the first set was anathema to his intentions.

''In the first set I felt like I lost it; he didn't win it,'' said Agassi, who traced his initial and ultimately costly jitters to the novelty of the situation. ''I was nervous to start out with, and I guess I can attribute that to being unfamiliar with the circumstances. The first set was important, not that I had to win it, but that I should have made him work for it. And whoever got the first break was going to take a huge step in the match because that set the confidence.''

On Saturday, 16-year-old Monica Seles became the youngest women's champion in French Open history when she eliminated a shaky, distracted Steffi Graf in straight sets, 7-6, 6-4. Today, Gomez gave an endorsement to experience.

''I read someplace where Agassi said we were in the same position because we were both in the final for the first time,'' Gomez said, ''but I think experience has got to play a big part in any sport.''

Gomez, at 30 the French Open's oldest champion in 18 years, used his power judiciously on his own serve, tried to avoid the exertion of long rallies during Agassi's serve, and let a conservationist strategy carry him through his first Grand Slam final to his first Grand Slam title.

''I decided not to get into long rallies on his serve and to reserve myself to win my own serve,'' said Gomez, whose game plan bombed badly only for the duration of the second set, where he dropped serve all four times. ''I was tired by the fourth set; I had to give it all there,'' said the 6-foot-4-inch Gomez, who rumbled around the court like an oversized bumble bee in his yellow, black, and white tennis outfit.

After trading handshakes with Agassi, who congratulated him for seizing the moment on center court, Gomez rushed from the court and into the stands to embrace his 2-year-old son, Juan Andres.

Agassi, as he had promised, wore his trademark black and hot lava ensemble, the one that prodded the authorities here into announcing they might adopt the same ''Wimbledon white'' dress code that the Las Vegan has listed as one of his reasons for avoiding that tournament. Agassi described the French Tennis Federation president, Philip Chatrier, as a ''Bozo'' last week when the dress-code issue was raised, but after meeting Chatrier today on the awards platform, Agassi modified his words.

''I guess if I didn't feel disappointed about taking second place, I wouldn't be one heck of a competitor,'' Agassi said. ''I don't feel ecstatic about reaching the final because I had hopes on winning it. But in the third and fourth sets he beat me, that's all there was to it. I can control how much effort I put into it, but I can't control what happens.''