Agassi joined Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Ilie Nastase and Boris Becker as just the ninth player in the Open Era (since 1968) to capture half a century of ATP career titles.
Relying on his signature punishing ground game, Agassi tempered the Spaniard’s hard-serve with breaks in the sixth and eighth games to grab the opener.
In the second set, Agassi led 5-4 and held two match points, but Balcells erased both, eventually forcing the tiebreaker.
After Agassi took a 4-2 lead, Balcells asked for an injury timeout on the changeover to have the Tour trainer wrap his left quad.
When play resumed, Agassi wasted little time. He nailed a backhand service return pass for 5-2, boomed a 109 MPH ace to set up match point, and drilled another backhand crosscourt pass to closed out the victory.
DELRAY BEACH (Florida): Italy’s Davide Sanguinetti stunned top seed Andy Roddick 6-4 4-6 6-4 to lift the Delray Beach crown and become the first player to win two ATP titles this year.
The victory was 29-year-old Sanguinetti’s second career ATP title after winning in Milan earlier this year and he did not mind how it came.
Sanguinetti now moves up from 19th to 10th position in the ATP Champions Race. Roddick jumps three places to sixth.
INDIAN WELLS (California): Third seeded Belgian Justine Henin sped into the fourth round of Indian Wells Masters Sunday while fifth seed Jelena Dokic’s comeback from injury stalled with a 6-3 6-0 loss to Luxembourg’s Anne Kremer.
After struggling past Slovenia’s Maja Matevzic in the second round, Henin shifted into top gear for her clash with Adriana Serra Zanetti dispatching the 43rd ranked Italian 6-3 6-0 in just 53 minutes.
Henin, twice a finalist this season losing both times to world number one Venus Williams, wasted no time stamping her authority on the contest breaking Zanetti at the first opportunity in both sets.
In other third round play, Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, who upset top seed Kim Clijsters in the second round, saw her dream run come to an end with 7-6 7-5 loss to Russia’s Anastasia Myskina.
Third round results
Martina Hingis (Switzerland) bt 27-Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) 6-3 6-3; Silvia Farina Elia (Italy) bt Lilia Osterloh (U.S.) 6-4 6-3; Amanda Coetzer (South Africa) bt Marta Marrero (Spain) 4-6 7-5 6-0; Ai Sugiyama (Japan) bt Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzbekistan) 6-2 6-3; Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (Spain) bt Daja Bedanova (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-4; Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Switzerland) bt Janette Husarova (Slovakia) 6-2 6-0; Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) b Barbara Schett (Austria) 5-7 6-3 6-1; Alexandra Stevenson (U.S.) bt Elena Dementieva (Russia) 6-4 0-6 6-4; Cara Black (Zimbabwe) bt Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) 3-6 7-5 6-1; Justine Henin (Belgium) bt Adriana Serra Zanetti (Italy) 6-3 6-0; Lisa Raymond (U.S.) bt Tatiana Panova (Russia) 6-2 6-1; Anastasia Myskina (Russia) bt Nathalie Dechy (France) 7-6 (7-2) 7-5; Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) bt Jelena Dokic (Yugoslavia)-3 6-0; Anna Smashnova (Israel) bt Eva Dyberg (Denmark) 1-6 6-3 6-2.—Reuters