3-Cushion
LILLE - We walk together on a bridge between the hotel and the billiard room of the European championship and overlook the trains passing by. Gülsen Degener is in a hurry. She's late for her first match, couldn't find a taxi and running is difficult, because she has problems with her big toe, on which she had an operation four weeks ago. ,,How long ago that we've seen, good to see, is Kozoom coming to broadcast the championship?''
The Turkish billiard star, one of the most remarkable appearances in the women's circuit and in the European championships in Lille, talks a lot when we're walking, about the women's billiards, her fifteen year old daughter in Berlin, her five weekly trips to her family in Istanbul, about how she fills her days, her her ambition and motivation for billiards.
Her chances to become European champion? Yes, why not. ,,My Turkish billiard friends always say: Gülsen, if you move around the billiard like you dance, then it's good, then you play with the good feeling, with confidence and with a good mentality.'' The reality was bitter: on Saturday evening she lost her match in the quarter finals against Danielle le Bruijn from Belgium.
Playing billiards as a ballerina. Gülsen Degener is 42 now, she stopped teaching at school, doesn't train so much, is only playing competition in Germany and Grand Prix tournaments in Turky and still is among the top five women players in the world.
,,My life looks different now than when I was still playing World Cups and had many hours of practicing at the billiard to improve myself. What I do now? I live in the centre of Berlin, I love shopping, Turkish cooking, doing lots of fitness training, I love to go out with friends and dance and I take care for Aylin Diana, my daughter of fifteen who studies at the gymnasium. She is much taller than me, very pretty and she does what she wants, as I always have done. She listens to what I say, she thinks about it and then goes her own way.''
Gülsen, born in Sanliurfa as one of the three children of a father and mother, who both were German teachers at the university, has always had that obstinate character. ,,I am who I am, even when I play billiards,''she says. If people say that she behaves or dresses herself too flamboyant, then it must be like that, she doesn't care. Gülsen can't change herself. ,,I can't behave like a man, because I'm playing in a man's world.''
The ambitions have been ebbed away a bit. ,,I often can't motivate myself, because we only play a European championship, but no World championships. And it's not fair to compare us with men. I estimate that there are a hundred of female three-cushion players in the world. The level is obviously much lower than in men's billiard.''
The Turkish title, which she won seven years in a row, isn't lost yet, although she's the second after two Grand Prix tournaments. She still has a third to prolongate the title. ,,I lost the last Grand Prix in a ridiculous ambiance in Samsun, in a basketball arena without air conditioning, with an outside temperature of 44 degrees. For everyone it was impossible to play there.''
The motivation has come back, probably, now she's sponsored by Longoni. ,,I am proud to be the only female billiard player with that sponsor.'' However, sometimes there is still a great peak, as in last year's World Cup in Antalya, where she played her best match ever. ,,I was in the group with Erkan Akti, a very strong Turkish player. Everyone said, what a pitty for you, that you have to play against him in the first round. But I won 2-0 in 9 and 10 innings, over 1.500 average.''
Gülsen Degener has won her first three matches in the preliminary rounds in Lille. She seemed to be ready for a new place on the podium, because she never was out of top three in the European championships she played. This time she will be: she lost her match against Danielle le Bruijn in the quarter finals and is out of the game now.