Andrés Gómez Santos (; born 27 February 1960) is an Ecuadorian former professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player. He won the men's singles title at the
French Open in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
.
His son,
Emilio Gómez, is a professional tennis player.
His nephew
Nicolás Lapentti
Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (; born 13 August 1976) is a former professional tennis player from Ecuador. His brothers, Giovanni and Leonardo, uncle Andrés, and cousins Roberto and Emilio also are or were on the pro circuit. His fath ...
was also a professional tennis player who reached a world ranking of No. 6, and another nephew,
Roberto Quiroz
Roberto Quiroz Gómez (; born 23 February 1992) is an Ecuadorian professional tennis player.
Quiroz is the nephew of Andrés Gómez and the cousin of Emilio Gómez and Nicolás Lapentti. He attended and played collegiate tennis at the Univers ...
, is currently pursuing a career in professional tennis.
Career
Gómez turned professional in 1979. Early success in his career came mainly in doubles competition. He won five doubles titles in 1980 and seven in 1981.
In 1986, Gómez attained the world No. 1 doubles ranking. He won seven doubles events that year, including the
US Open men's doubles title (partnering
Slobodan Živojinović
Slobodan "Bobo" Živojinović ( sr-cyr, Слободан Живојиновић, ; born 23 July 1963) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia.
Together with Nenad Zimonjić, he is the only tennis playe ...
). Gómez won a second
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
men's doubles title in 1988 at the French Open (partnering
Emilio Sánchez).
His first top-level singles title came in 1981 in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
. He then won the
Italian Open in 1982, beating
Eliot Teltscher in the final in three sets, and again in 1984, when he defeated
Aaron Krickstein
Aaron Krickstein (born August 2, 1967), nicknamed "Marathon Man", is an American former professional tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1983 to 1996. He currently competes on the Outback Champions Series Over-30 tour.
Krickstein ...
in four sets.
In 1990, Gómez reached his first and only Grand Slam singles final at the
French Open. He beat
Fernando Luna,
Marcelo Filippini,
Alexander Volkov,
Magnus Gustafsson
Magnus Nils Gustafsson (born 3 January 1967) is a tennis coach and former top ten professional tennis player from Sweden. Gustafsson won 14 tour singles titles during his career and finished 15 consecutive seasons within the world's top 100, r ...
,
Thierry Champion, and
Thomas Muster
Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967) is an Austrian former world No. 1 tennis player. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, he won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was called "The King of Clay". In addition, he won eig ...
to reach the final. There he faced 20-year-old
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors.
Agassi is the second of five men to ac ...
who, like Gómez, was playing in his first Grand Slam singles final. The up-and-coming American star was considered the favourite, but Gómez seized the moment and claimed the title with a four-set win. Gómez reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 later that year.
Throughout his career, Gómez won 21 singles and 33 doubles titles. His last singles title was won in 1991 in Brasília. His final doubles title came in 1992 in Barcelona.
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1–0)
Doubles: 2 (2–0)
Career finals
Singles: 35 (21–14)
Doubles: 51 (33–18)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Andres
1960 births
Living people
Ecuadorian male tennis players
French Open champions
Sportspeople from Guayaquil
Tennis players at the 1979 Pan American Games
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Ecuador
US Open (tennis) champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles
Pan American Games medalists in tennis
South American Games gold medalists for Ecuador
South American Games medalists in tennis
Competitors at the 1978 Southern Cross Games
Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games
ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players