Agassi Is Cut to the Quick by Gomez, 30

As it turned out, the race to the French Open championship was not won by the swift. Instead, the world’s premier clay court title went to 30-year-old Andres Gomez, owner of the unlikely nickname of “Go Go.”

Possibly the only thing slower than Gomez is the slow red clay center court of Roland Garros Stadium, where he stood Sunday and won his first Grand Slam title in 27 attempts.

Gomez, a part-time shrimp farmer in Guayquil, Ecuador, wove a net of booming serves and big shots to catch Andre Agassi, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the first Grand Slam final for both players.

“I have come here for 12 years and I have been thinking about this moment,” Gomez said. “It just took too long.

Gomez needed 2 hours 31 minutes to reach his goal and end Agassi’s quest to match Michael Chang’s victory a year ago and become the second consecutive American to win here.

Said Agassi, who was favored to beat Gomez: “I guess if I don’t feel disappointed about coming in second, I wouldn’t be one heck of a competitor. But you’ve got to accept these things.”

Gomez accepted a check for $370,000 after the match. Moments earlier, he concluded his finest day in tennis with a forehand down the line.

Agassi could only turn and watch it bounce away. Gomez spun and covered his face, still holding his racket. He ran off the court and into the stands, where he held his 2-year-old son, Juan Andres, and kissed his wife, Anna Maria.

He thought about last year, when he lost in the second round and returned to Ecuador to watch the final on television. Ecuadoran television asked him to come to the studio and comment on the match, but Gomez declined.

“I say, ‘Next year I do it for sure,’ ” Gomez said.

“But over there, I think they are happier that I am over here.”

The match turned happily for Gomez in the ninth game of the third set. Agassi was serving at 4-4 and led, 40-15, but he did not win another point. When Gomez reached a drop shot and slashed a forehand winner that dribbled off Agassi’s racket, Gomez broke to 5-4.

Gomez, who had 10 aces, had two of them in the next game, closing out the set with a service winner that Agassi lofted far over the baseline.

“That was bad, but I don’t feel as bad about that game as how I started the match,” Agassi said.

His game plan was to stay back, hit deep and move the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Gomez from side to side, taking advantage of Gomez’s lack of mobility. But Gomez countered with his own tactic: keep the points short, stay away from rallies, score on first serves and go for winners.

“I am not a Wilander,” Gomez said. “I don’t have a great pair of legs to keep me going for six hours. I can’t do that.”

Throughout the match, Gomez’s game alternated between brilliant winners and breathtaking errors. He had 58 winners and 72 unforced errors.

“What is important is not how many errors I make, but how many winners I make,” he said. “Some people don’t like that. I like it.”

Agassi’s dislike for what happened in the first set centered on his problems with making Gomez tire. Instead, the set lasted only 30 minutes with Agassi making the crucial mistake. He was broken to 3-5, and Gomez finished the set with a sizzling ace down the middle.

But as soon as Gomez began depending on his serve, it deserted him. He lost all four service games in the set and Agassi was right back in the match.

It took him one game to start backpedaling. Gomez broke him in the first game.

“That was enough to keep me going,” Gomez said.

However, that advantage lasted only until the seventh game, when Gomez double-faulted on the first point and saw Agassi break back at love for 4-4.

The next game proved to be Agassi’s downfall.

“The only thing he did that gave me trouble was his serve,” Agassi said. “If he had missed more on his first serve, I think I could have worn him down. He slid it in there pretty good.

“I could never get him down,” he said. “If I could have gotten a game ahead, it could have been different.”

Changing the pace, keeping Agassi from cutting down angles, Gomez kept Agassi from getting into a rhythm. He broke Agassi for a 2-1 lead in the fourth set and held for 3-2 and 4-3, after falling behind, 30-0, in each.

“I didn’t panic,” Gomez said. “I was down and I had the will to come back. The problem may be in the past, I don’t play the big points good enough. That’s what changed today.”

So it was at 5:38 p.m. that Gomez walked to the service line leading, 5-4.

It was a good thing that the match lasted no longer, Gomez said, for he had no energy left.

“I had to give it all,” he said. “I didn’t have enough for a fifth set.”

Gomez hit his first four serves in and the score was 30-30. Then he drove Agassi into the corner with a forehand, forcing him to hit into the net. One more forehand and it was over.

One day after Monica Seles became the youngest women to win the French Open at 16, Gomez became the oldest male champion of any Grand Slam tournament since Jimmy Connors won the 1983 U.S. Open at 31. His 20th career singles title also moved Gomez to No. 4 in the rankings, his highest.

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Gomez said. “Maybe I’ll have a couple of beers before bed, wake up, see the newspapers and then I’ll see I really won.”

It seems appropriate, somehow, that the first Grand Slam title of Gomez’s career was slow in coming. At 30, there can’t be many more days like it, can there?

“Maybe this is a sunrise, not a sunset,” he said.