It Will Be New Experience for Agassi or Gomez

It’s Andre vs. Andres in the French Open final today, a matchup of Andre Agassi of Las Vegas and Andres Gomez of Ecuador, two players with very different senses of timing.

Gomez, 30, the oldest player in the men’s draw, is a veteran of 27 Grand Slam tournaments, but will be making his first Grand Slam final appearance. Agassi, 20, is in his first Grand Slam final in his ninth Grand Slam tournament.

Not since the 1981 Australian Open final between Johan Kriek and Steve Denton has there been a Grand Slam final between two players who have never been in one before.

“He isn’t that old,” Agassi said of Gomez. “He is in the same situation as me for being in the final of a Grand Slam tournament, so experience doesn’t count. It will be a question of who outplays who.”

Gomez is a left-hander and no left-hander has won the French Open since Guillermo Vilas in 1977. Also, no Ecuadorian has ever been in a Grand Slam final, although Pancho Segura reached four U.S. Championship semifinals from 1942-45.

But trivia aside, Gomez has established points in his favor through the sheer power of his tennis. To get to the final, he lost only one set in six matches.

Gomez has 30 aces in five matches and has won 76% of the points on his serve. In the semifinals, Gomez out-hit slugging Austrian Thomas Muster and had nine aces.

Still, Muster was less than thrilled with the prospects of Gomez when asked about the final.

“If Agassi plays nearly like he has been playing the whole two weeks, then I think he will win,” Muster said.

Agassi has 10 singles titles, six of them in 1988 when he basically came out of nowhere to end the year ranked No. 3 in the world. He slumped to No. 7 last year when he won just one tournament.

“I didn’t want to be motivated,” Agassi said of 1989. “I didn’t want to come back the next day if I won. I was just fried. In my mind, my year was over in February.

“There was a lot of pressure, plus the expectations of people and the expectations I put on myself,” he said. “I had a lot of growing up to do. I still do. But if I’m in for another bad series of feelings, of bad tournaments and stuff, I’m better prepared to handle it.”

Agassi will go over the $2-million mark in earnings here, already assured of $185,000 for reaching the final. Either Gomez or Agassi will earn $370,000 for winning.

“I am out there to win it and I will do what I have do do,” Agassi said.