Paris ? Unseeded Gaston Gaudio erased two championship points and outlasted gimpy Guillermo Coria to win a seesaw, five-set French Open final Sunday.

In the first all-Argentine major final, Gaudio won 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6 and became the first men’s Grand Slam champion from his country in 25 years. He’s only the third unseeded French Open champion in the Open era.

Gaudio became the first French Open men’s champion since 1934 to win after saving a match point in the final. The last time any Grand Slam men’s champion did it was at the 1960 Australian Open.

The No. 3-seeded Coria won the first eight games but required treatment from a trainer for left leg cramps at 1-all in the fourth set. He offered only token resistance the rest of the set, hitting meek, flat-footed serves and declining to run after shots.

Then the ointment and tablet the trainer had given Coria began to help.

“He told me after 15 minutes I would feel an improvement,” Coria said. “This is the reason why during the fourth set I didn’t run, and in the fifth set I was able to fight more.”

In the fifth set, Coria started moving better, even chasing down drop shots. Gaudio, meanwhile, struggled to keep his rhythm.

The 25-year-old Gaudio is ranked 44th, fourth lowest for a Grand Slam men’s champion in the Open era. The only other unseeded Roland Garros men’s champs in the Open era were Mats Wilander in 1982 and Gustavo Kuerten in 1997.