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.

Joan Balcells
Country (sports) Spain
ResidenceBarcelona, Spain
Born (1975-06-20) 20 June 1975 (age 49)
Barcelona, Spain
Height1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro1996
Retired2004
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money$815,801
Singles
Career record41–49
Career titles1
Highest rankingNo. 57 (7 May 2001)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open1R (2001, 2002, 2003)
French Open2R (2000, 2001)
Wimbledon1R (2001, 2002)
US Open1R (2001)
Doubles
Career record40–54
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 65 (23 July 2001)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open2R (2001)
French Open2R (2000, 2002)
WimbledonQF (2001)
US Open2R (2000)
Team competitions
Davis CupW (2000)
Last updated on: 22 April 2022.

Balcells was born in Barcelona, and played for the Spanish David Cup team in 2000, winning the doubles rubber (with Àlex Corretja) in the final against Australia. He retired in 2004. Ballcells 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

edit

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

edit
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)

edit
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

edit

Singles: 2 (0–2)

edit
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)

edit
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

edit
Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

edit
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

edit
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

edit
# 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
edit