“Roland Garros is not only one of the four great and historic tennis tournaments; it is everyone’s obsession. Its tracks, its surroundings, its city help to further magnify whoever manages to win it. Accessing it is very difficult. Being able to prevail in it is a greater challenge, a dream come true. For this reason, I believe that I am privileged to my sport, my country and Roland Garros.” The words are from Andrés Gómez who 30 years ago reached the title after beating the American Andre Agassi to the maximum in Paris, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
The left-hander from Guayaquil won on June 10, 1990, in the famous Philippe-Chatrier at Las Vegas Kid, only 19 years old. In the semifinals he had defeated the Austrian Thomas Muster, remembered for being one of the best in history on clay.
A few years ago, whoever was No. 4 in the world in 1990 took stock of his career. “I am happy with what I did, I am satisfied, because I never dreamed of being a professional player. I dreamed of winning Wimbledon or a ‘US Open’ (United States Open), and the Davis Cup, but I did not dream of being a professional player , I dreamed of playing these tournaments and returning home.
“Of course, along the way I learned that I could become a professional, and I began to learn to work in a way that I had never done before. Furthermore, he had a great example such as the Argentine Guillermo Vilas,” he added.
“Tennis, like any sport, evolves and different game tactics emerge, perhaps when (Swede Bjorn) Borg and Vilas were in their best time in the late 70s and early 80s, the game was a little more slow and there was a need to start accelerating it,” commented the man who ended up marking an era in Latin American tennis.
Gómez, who was number one in the world in doubles in 1986 and who accumulated 21 individual titles and 33 in doubles, recognized that he could have done better things. “It’s easy to talk after the chips are played, and you know what mistakes you made or didn’t make, coming from a country like Ecuador that really had very little happening at the tennis level,” he said.
A legacy that leaves its mark? His son Emilio Gómez and his nephews Nicolás Lapentti, Giovanni Lapentti and Roberto Quiroz also acquired international relevance. What they say… lead the way.
