It May Not Be the French Open, but Agassi Finally Beats Gomez

Andre Agassi defeated French Open champion Andres Gomez, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, in an exhibition in front of 9,372 at the Forum Saturday night. Gomez had beaten Agassi in the French Open final.

“I think I came out a little nervous because this was my first match since the U.S. Open, and I started out a bit slowly,” said Agassi, who double-faulted three times in his first service game. “But then I got in a good groove.”

There were no service breaks in the first set, although Gomez, a 35-year old Ecuadorean ranked fifth in the world, overcome two break points in the 12th game, forcing a tiebreaker.

Agassi took the tiebreaker 7-2, serving two aces while Gomez made three unforced errors.

Agassi, the world’s fourth-ranked player, got the only service break of the match, in the fifth game of the second set, to take a 4-2 lead when Gomez hit a backhand into the net.

In a preliminary match, Byron Black, a senior at USC and 1989 NCAA doubles champion, defeated Michael Joyce, a 16-year-old junior at St. Monica’s High ranked second by the U.S. Tennis Assn. in the boys’ 18 division, 6-3, 6-2.