Agassi Stays Cool, Gains Shot at Title : French Open: He beats a nervous Svensson and will play Ecuador’s Gomez Sunday.

The Andre Agassi traveling show--equal parts bleached blond hair, pink tights and white-hot forehands--rolled nonstop into the French Open final here Friday.

There hasn’t been an American male winner of the French Open since, oh, last year when Michael Chang ended a 34-year U.S. losing streak at Roland Garros Stadium.

Now Agassi, 20, has a chance to make it two in a row, a virtual American dynasty.

Can he do it?

“I didn’t stay in Paris for two weeks to come in second,” Agassi said.

Sunday, Agassi will play Ecuador’s Andres Gomez, at 30 the oldest player in the men’s draw. Gomez is a left-handed clay-court specialist who has worked 12 years to reach his first Grand Slam final.

Delayed briefly by showers on a cold and windy day, Agassi brushed past a nervous Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in reaching his first Grand Slam final. Meanwhile, Gomez took advantage of weary Austrian Thomas Muster, 7-5, 6-1, 7-5.

Agassi, who toned down his normal exuberant clay-court game because of the wind, picked Svensson apart in the early going, when the 23-year-old Swede lapsed into nervous mistakes.

Just how nervous was Svensson?

“Very, very nervous,” he said.

Agassi said he was content to keep the ball in play and watch Svensson try to keep from hitting it in the stands. It proved to be good strategy.

“He seemed like he was doing a pretty good job of beating himself,” Agassi said. “I couldn’t complain.”

Soon it was over. Unexpectedly, instead of playing patiently, Svensson began going for winners. The result was disastrous.

“I forgot my tactic,” Svensson said. “I stopped thinking. It went pretty fast then.”

Agassi broke Svensson for 5-3 and served out the match with Svensson committing his 67th and last unforced error on match point.

After launching a ball into the stands, Agassi turned to his entourage in the stands and said, “Just one more.”

But there is Gomez to contend with. He was overlooked by French Open handicappers despite an impressive season on clay.

Gomez, who won tournaments in Barcelona and Madrid and lost to Muster in the final at Rome, avenged that loss by controlling the match from the start.

“I was determined not to let him get into the match,” said Gomez, who stymied Muster by attacking the net.

Gomez made 61 advances to the net, won the point 46 times and had 47 winners to 17 for Muster.

“I wanted to crawl under the ground,” Muster said. “He controls the whole court with his forehand. From the middle of the court, he hits the ball to both sides and deep. It was difficult to pass him. I couldn’t really move. I had heavy legs. It was one of those days.”

Gomez said that Muster seemed tired, unable to run down balls as he normally does. And now that Gomez has reached his first Grand Slam final, he said he was happy someone else had not entered the tournament.

“Probably if (Ivan) Lendl was here, then I probably wouldn’t be,” Gomez said. “I would probably be on the beach somewhere.”

A final against Agassi will be no day at the beach. Gomez and Agassi are 2-2 and each has a victory on clay. The last time they played was on a hard court in March at Key Biscayne, Fla. Agassi won in three sets.

In the last year, Gomez has improved his ranking from No. 43 to No. 7. He has won 17 singles titles, but never had advanced beyond the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam.

“It will always take someone very good to beat me at this stage of a tournament,” Gomez said. “I have thought to myself before that one of these days, things will change for me and I will come out on top. That is what is happening at the moment.”

Agassi is equally confident.

“Whoever is on the other side of the net is in for a long afternoon,” he said. “I want it pretty bad.”