Joan Balcells
# Joan Balcells

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 Spain Davis Cup team in 2000, winning the doubles rubber (with Àlex Corretja) in the final against Australia. He retired in 2004. Ballcells was considered a strange player for being a Spanish player because Ballcells always go up to the net, his game was based on serve and volley. This was not very common on Spanish tennis by the 1990s and early 2000s.

## ATP career finals

### Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

* Legend
* Grand 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 surface
* Hard (0–1)
* Clay (1–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (1–1)
* Indoors (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Win | 1–0 | Sep 2000 | Bucharest, Romania | International Series | Clay | Markus Hantschk | 6–4, 3–6, $7–6^{(7–1)}$ |
| Loss | 1–1 | Mar 2002 | Scottsdale, United States | International Series | Hard | Andre Agassi | 2–6, $6–7^{(2–7)}$ |

### Doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

* Legend
* Grand 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 surface
* Hard (0–1)
* Clay (0–1)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (0–2)
* Indoors (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Loss | 0–1 | Mar 2000 | Bogotá, Colombia | International Series | Clay | Mauricio Hadad | Pablo Albano Lucas Arnold Ker | $6–7^{(4–7)},$ 6–1, 2–6 |
| Loss | 0–2 | Jan 2001 | Doha, Qatar | International Series | Hard | Andrei Olhovskiy | Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor | 3–6, 1–6 |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

### Singles: 2 (0–2)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (0–2)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (0–0)
* Clay (0–2)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Loss | 0-1 | May 2000 | Ljubljana, Slovenia | Challenger | Clay | Oliver Gross | 6–4, 1–6, $6–7^{(3–7)}$ |
| Loss | 0-2 | May 2002 | Ljubljana, Slovenia | Challenger | Clay | Arnaud Di Pasquale | 4–6, 3–6 |

### Doubles: 12 (6–6)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (6–6)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (1–0)
* Clay (5–6)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Loss | 0-1 | May 1997 | Bratislava, Slovakia | Challenger | Clay | Devin Bowen | Jared Palmer Christo van Rensburg | 6–4, 3–6, 5–7 |
| Win | 1-1 | Apr 1998 | Barletta, Italy | Challenger | Clay | Juan Ignacio Carrasco | Thomas Strengberger Dušan Vemić | $7–6^{(7–4)},$ 6–3 |
| Win | 2-1 | Apr 1998 | Prague, Czech Republic | Challenger | Clay | Nenad Zimonjić | Jiří Novák Radek Štěpánek | 7–6, 7–6 |
| Loss | 2-2 | Jun 1998 | Braunschweig, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Emanuel Couto | Tomás Carbonell Francisco Roig | 2–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 3-2 | May 1999 | Espinho, Portugal | Challenger | Clay | Gastón Etlis | Noam Behr Eyal Ran | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 4-2 | Sep 1999 | Freudenstadt, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Thomas Strengberger | Michal Tabara Robin Vik | 4–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
| Win | 5-2 | Mar 2000 | Salinas, Ecuador | Challenger | Hard | Mauricio Hadad | Emilio Benfele Álvarez Álex Calatrava | walkover |
| Loss | 5-3 | Nov 2000 | Santiago, Chile | Challenger | Clay | Germán Puentes Alcañiz | Irakli Labadze Dušan Vemić | 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 5-4 | Nov 2000 | Montevideo, Uruguay | Challenger | Clay | Germán Puentes Alcañiz | Lucas Arnold Ker Gastón Etlis | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 5-5 | Sep 2002 | Freudenstadt, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Yuri Schukin | Diego del Río Leonardo Olguín | $6–7^{(2–7)},$ 4–6 |
| Loss | 5-6 | Apr 2003 | San Remo, Italy | Challenger | Clay | Juan Albert Viloca | Daniele Bracciali Amir Hadad | 2–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 6-6 | Jun 2003 | Lugano, Switzerland | Challenger | Clay | Juan Albert Viloca | Álex López Morón Andrés Schneiter | 6–4, 6–4 |

## Performance timelines

Key :

| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

### Singles

| Tournament | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Grand Slam tournaments |||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | Q3 | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | 0 / 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| French Open | Q2 | Q2 | A | 2R | 2R | 1R | Q3 | 0 / 3 | 2–3 | 40% |
| Wimbledon | Q1 | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| US Open | A | A | A | Q1 | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 0 / 9 | 2–9 | 18% |
| ATP World Tour Masters 1000 |||||||||||
| Miami | A | A | A | Q1 | 3R | 1R | A | 0 / 2 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Monte Carlo | A | A | A | A | 1R | Q1 | Q2 | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Hamburg | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 4 | 2–4 | 33% |

### Doubles

| Tournament | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Grand Slam tournaments ||||||||
| Australian Open | 1R | 1R | 2R | 1R | 0 / 4 | 1–4 | 20% |
| French Open | A | 2R | 1R | 2R | 0 / 3 | 2–3 | 40% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | QF | 1R | 0 / 2 | 3–2 | 60% |
| US Open | A | 2R | 1R | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 2–3 | 4–4 | 1–3 | 0 / 11 | 7–11 | 39% |
| ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ||||||||
| Miami | A | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Monte Carlo | A | A | 1R | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Hamburg | A | A | Q2 | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0 / 3 | 0–3 | 0% |

## Top 10 wins

| # | Player | Rank | Event | Surface | Rd | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2001 |||||||
| 1. | Marat Safin | 2 | Miami, United States | Hard | 2R | 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 |
| 2. | Marat Safin | 2 | Gstaad, Switzerland | Clay | 1R | 6–4, $6–7^{(4–7)},$ 6–4 |
