Joan Manel Balcells Fornaguera (; born 20 June 1975) is a retired professional tennis player from Spain. He won one ATP Tour singles title in his career and reached the final in Scottsdale in 2002 (losing to Andre Agassi) and the semifinals in 2000 Heineken Open, losing to Michael Chang.
Balcells was born in Barcelona, and played for the Spanish Davis Cup team in 2000, winning the doubles rubber (with Àlex Corretja) in the final against Australia. He retired in 2004. Balcells' style of play was considered unusual for a Spanish player, as he possessed a serve and volley game that involved regularly rushing the net. This was not very common in Spanish tennis by the 1990s and early 2000s.
ATP career finals
Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–0)ATP 250 Series (1–1)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (1–1)Indoors (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Bucharest, RomaniaInternational SeriesClay Markus Hantschk6–4, 3–6, 7–6(7–1)Loss1–1Scottsdale, United StatesInternational SeriesHard Andre Agassi2–6, 6–7(2–7)
Doubles: 2 (2 runners-up) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–0)ATP 250 Series (0–2)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (0–2)Indoors (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Bogotá, ColombiaInternational SeriesClay Mauricio Hadad Pablo Albano Lucas Arnold Ker6–7(4–7), 6–1, 2–6Loss0–2Doha, QatarInternational SeriesHard Andrei Olhovskiy Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor3–6, 1–6
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 2 (0–2) LegendATP Challenger (0–2)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (0–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0-1Ljubljana, SloveniaChallengerClay Oliver Gross6–4, 1–6, 6–7(3–7)Loss0-2Ljubljana, SloveniaChallengerClay Arnaud Di Pasquale4–6, 3–6
Doubles: 12 (6–6) LegendATP Challenger (6–6)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (1–0)Clay (5–6)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0-1Bratislava, SlovakiaChallengerClay Devin Bowen Jared Palmer Christo van Rensburg6–4, 3–6, 5–7Win1-1Barletta, ItalyChallengerClay Juan Ignacio Carrasco Thomas Strengberger Dušan Vemić7–6(7–4), 6–3Win2-1Prague, Czech RepublicChallengerClay Nenad Zimonjić Jiří Novák Radek Štěpánek7–6, 7–6Loss2-2Braunschweig, GermanyChallengerClay Emanuel Couto Tomás Carbonell Francisco Roig2–6, 6–7Win3-2Espinho, PortugalChallengerClay Gastón Etlis Noam Behr Eyal Ran6–3, 6–2Win4-2Freudenstadt, GermanyChallengerClay Thomas Strengberger Michal Tabara Robin Vik4–6, 6–2, 6–3Win5-2Salinas, EcuadorChallengerHard Mauricio Hadad Emilio Benfele Álvarez Álex CalatravawalkoverLoss5-3Santiago, ChileChallengerClay Germán Puentes Alcañiz Irakli Labadze Dušan Vemić3–6, 4–6Loss5-4Montevideo, UruguayChallengerClay Germán Puentes Alcañiz Lucas Arnold Ker Gastón Etlis4–6, 4–6Loss5-5Freudenstadt, GermanyChallengerClay Yuri Schukin Diego del Río Leonardo Olguín6–7(2–7), 4–6Loss5-6San Remo, ItalyChallengerClay Juan Albert Viloca Daniele Bracciali Amir Hadad2–6, 4–6Win6-6Lugano, SwitzerlandChallengerClay Juan Albert Viloca Álex López Morón Andrés Schneiter6–4, 6–4
Performance timelines
Singles Tournament1997199819992000200120022003SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAQ3A1R1R1R0 / 30–3French OpenQ2Q2A2R2R1RQ30 / 32–3WimbledonQ1AAA1R1RA0 / 20–2US OpenAAAQ11RAA0 / 10–1Win–loss0–00–00–01–11–40–30–10 / 92–9ATP World Tour Masters 1000MiamiAAAQ13R1RA0 / 22–2Monte CarloAAAA1RQ1Q20 / 10–1HamburgAAAA1RAA0 / 10–1Win–loss0–00–00–00–02–30–10–00 / 42–4
Doubles Tournament1999200020012002SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian Open1R1R2R1R0 / 41–4French OpenA2R1R2R0 / 32–3WimbledonAAQF1R0 / 23–2US OpenA2R1RA0 / 21–2Win–loss0–12–34–41–30 / 117–11ATP World Tour Masters 1000MiamiA1R1RA0 / 20–2Monte CarloAA1RA0 / 10–1HamburgAAQ2A0 / 00–0Win–loss0–00–10–20–00 / 30–3
Top 10 wins #PlayerRankEventSurfaceRdScore20011. Marat Safin2Miami, United StatesHard2R4–6, 6–4, 6–32. Marat Safin2Gstaad, SwitzerlandClay1R6–4, 6–7(4–7), 6–4
External links