Charlotte (Denmark) is the new best in the world

HOLBAEK - The new world champion in women's three-cushion has a boyfriend, a dog and a cat at home, has never been a ‘girly girl’ (no dresses, no high heels), was a nightlife type, devoted to her sport and has been overwhelmed with congratulations after winning the world title by family, friends and colleagues. She still cannot believe she achieved this huge global success and is happy with all the lovely reactions.

Charlotte Sörensen (just turned 42, from Holbaek) stepped out of the shadow of Dutch billiard queen Therese Klompenhouwer a fortnight ago in the French town of Blois on the Loire. The victory was more or less sensational as Therese and the young Korean were the top favorites. The new Danish star Charlotte Sörensen, schooled and trained in pool billiards, may wear the crown of world's best in three-cushion for a year. ’’I got a welcome in Denmark that was unforgettable with the national anthem, flags and a banner.’’ The world has turned upside down for Charlotte for a few weeks now. ’’It's still hard to believe that I won the world championship.’’

We asked the Danish world champion for an extensive interview for Kozoom, looking back at the Championship, telling the story of her childhood, training stages, studies, her further life, about billiards, friends, work and home. In short: a glimpse into the life of Charlotte Sörensen.

Kozoom/FB: How was your first week as the new world champion, in your environment, among friends, colleagues, how was publicity and attention in your country and the reactions of people in the city where you live?

Charlotte Sörensen: Phew - the first week has been a little crazy. So many people have congratulated me, radios and journalists has been contacting me for making interviews, a regional TV-station was at my house for making a clip for the TV, and I’m still being contacted by the press. I don’t think, I have ever been on the phone so much. Luckily, I came home to Denmark on a Friday, and was meet by around 30 friends and family in the airport, welcoming me with the Danish national anthem, flags, a banner etc. I had the weekend off, so there was time to handle all the requests. I took some of my closest friends and family out to dinner on Sunday to celebrate. Monday I was back at work, and around 40-50 colleagues surprised me with congratulations. Furthermore, my work has written 2 articles, one for the Intranet and one for LinkedIn. Because I have around 10.000 colleagues in total, it goes out to quite a lot of people outside the billiard world. The Saturday that followed, my club surprised me – with the help of my boyfriend – to a celebration, where both carom- and snooker players were there. The other Friday, the Danish billiard federation organized a reception for me. And now I have tried to relax a little with some long walks with my dog. It’s a lot to take in, off course it is only positive, but I’m still having a hard time believing that I won the World Championship. I think, it will take some time still. Besides all that I still had work to handle, which was quite hard to concentrate around.

Kozoom/FB: Personal: where, when born, full name, grew up in a family with more children, what was your earliest childhood like in the area where you lived, was it with lots of friends, playing outside, do you have nice memories?

Charlotte: Full name: Charlotte Sørensen, 9/9-1982, born in Holbæk (around 60 km. from Copenhagen), where I live now with my boyfriend Tommy Ebeling, my dog and cat. I was living in Copenhagen for around 10 years in my twenties. I have a bigger sister, no kids. My childhood was pretty normal, I think. Was always active with different kind of sports: football, karate etc. and many friends. Did my homework quite fast, so I could go to sport, be with friends etc. I’ve always been very independent and targeted, moved away from my parents, when I was 15 (by agreement) and have always tried to have stability and security in my life.

Kozoom/FB: What were the popular sports for girls in your early years and later, did you have sports idols, were you sports active in young years, what were your teenage years like? Going out, for instance, you liked music, dancing, how do you look back on those lovely years of your life? In short, what kind of young girl were you?

Charlotte: Football and basketball were quite popular in my teens around my friends. However, we were some kids, who attended billiard together, in Holbæk Billiard Club, so billiard wasn’t unknown for my friends and classmates. I liked going out to parties and hang out with friends. So already at a young age, I had to prioritize with billiard and social life. I have never idolized much in my life; however, Roger Federer and Victor Axelsen (Danish badminton player) has inspired me a lot. I’ve never been a ’girly girl’, meaning I never wore high heels, dresses etc. because it didn’t feel comfortable with playing billiards, and the high heels affected my stance at the table, so that was a no-go. 

Kozoom/FB: How did billiards come into your life or was it first all about studying and working towards a future?

Charlotte: My father played billiard and was quite good in my hometown, and one summer he and my mom were running a bar, which had a billiard table (Danish 5-pins). So before in first hours in the school’s summer vacation, I started playing, when I was bored. I was around 12 years old. My father then took me to the local billiard club, and I have played ever since then. Billiard has always been a hobby – though with great impact in my life – either beside studying or working. In the beginning it was all about fun, and at that time there were many young people playing in Denmark and in my club. I quickly got success in the youth and women tournaments, so it was easy to continue playing. My parents always supported me a lot, driving me around the country for tournaments and training.

Kozoom/FB: What did the first phase in billiards look like? Where did you learn it, at school, clubs, pub? And after that: how and when did you discover you had a more than normal talent for that?

Charlotte: What I said, I started out with Danish 5-pin, which is the most common billiard discipline in Denmark, and its only played in DK. I won my first women handicap tournament, I played, and quickly rose in level and won other tournaments, both for youth and women. Furthermore, we were around 10-15 young players at my club, and had youth training 3 times a week after school with a coach. He trained technique and all sorts of layouts with us, and made training fun, so it was quite easy to keep playing billiards. At that time, I also went to karate, but 2 sports was too much, I had to choose, which ended with billiard. When I was 15, I won the Danish championship for women in Danish 5-pins in the highest rank. At that time a quite good Danish pool player (Carsten Krøyer) tried to convince me to try out pool, which I then did, when I was around 17-18 years and played pool for around 10-11 years. I also started to play some money tournaments in bars around Copenhagen, where I could earn some money to finance my international pool tournaments, so I could afford it at that time. 

Kozoom/FB: Do you want to say something about relations: I mean boy or girl friends who also played billiards, billiards fans to spend your life together, your friend a billiard player as well who gives you all the space you need to develop in your sport?

Charlotte: I live with my boyfriend Tommy Ebeling, who also plays 3-cushion (around 1,1 on average). We have been together for around 16 years. He also used to play pool, and we know each other from that time. He was the one, who convinced me to try out 3-cushion 5 years ago and has also coached me along the way. So billiard is a huge part of our lives.

Kozoom/FB: How did you get into working life? Study, stages, application and a job. Where and what kind of work, how many hours, with colleagues who sympathize with your sport? Fascinating, interesting work?

Charlotte: I work for the Danish Tax Agency and has been there for 22 years (since 2002). I work 38 hours a week with 7 weeks of vacation a year. Quite a lot of my colleagues follow my billiard game, and their cheering is some of the best, since they only care about winning, and don’t have any insight in the game (layouts, patterns, average etc.). So I cherish that a lot. After primary school I studied 3 years at business school, and the went out to get a 2-year job as an office assistant at a nearby municipality office. I got hired at the municipality in the tax department after the trainee job. I then took some smaller evening schools, but at that time pool was a big part of my life. I won the European championship in 8-ball women in 2003 and therefor just concentrated about work, and then practice after that. In 2008 my father was diagnosed with cancer, and I almost cancelled participating in the European Championship pool, which was also EPBFs 25 anniversary. I went anyway and won the straight pool discipline. My father died shortly after the EC, and since he has always been a big part of my billiard life, it made it really hard to play after that. Suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore, no matter how hard I tried or wanted. I therefor stopped playing under The Danish Billiard Federation (DDBU) around 2009/2010.

Shortly after that, my work offered me to start study to be a tax accountant, which I accepted. The study was school in working hours, and homework in my spare time. It took 3,5 years and, in that time, I only played Danish 5-pins in bars, primary as fun, but also still participated in money tournaments, which is quite big here in DK. 

A couple of years after I finished my study, I wanted to play more serious billiard again. I therefore joined a club and started playing Danish 5-pin tournaments under the Danish Billiard Federation (DDBU) again. I played both women tournaments and open tournaments in Danish 5-pin. Around 2018 I reached the average, where I could compete in the highest ranked tournament in Danish 5-pins. At that time, I thought it was an open tournament, but it turned out to be a “men-only” tournament. Therefor I wasn’t allowed to play that tournament. 

Since I couldn’t reach any higher in Danish 5-pin at that time, I then needed to figure out what to do with my billiard. I therefor decided to switch discipline again and considered either international 5-pins or 3-cushion. Since there weren’t any European tournaments for women in international 5-pins at that time, and with the pushing from my boyfriend, Tommy, I decided to try out 3-cushion in September 2019.

Kozoom/FB And now, all of a sudden, you're the world champion. What does that change in your life? How do you deal with it in your environment. Did you have the illusion before that you could become the best in the world? Did you look up to Therese, or to the Korean young stars?

Charlotte: At the moment I don’t know, what will happen, after I won the World Championship. I still have a full-time job, and my focus is still to have a balanced life between billiard, work and social life. I still have a lot to work on and learn in 3-cushion, and winning the World Championship doesn’t change that. Even before winning the World Championships, I use nearly all of my vacation to play tournaments, and it is quite hard to make this puzzle fit. I hope in time to be able to work lesser hours, so I can both practice a bit more, have a little more time to relax a bit, and to not have a hard time making it all work out with vacation, training, and tournaments etc. I also do voluntary work in billiards, primary in the 2 clubs, I’m a member of. This gives me both energy, and self-development, so I hope, I can continue with this, as long as there is balance in my life overall. 

I always had a dream to win a medal at the WC both back in the days where I played pool, and also now that I play 3-cushion. I have always aimed to become a better billiard player, and work with my weaker skills through having high quality in my training. That’s why my practice is around 80-90% alone at home, and max. 20% playing with others. When I won the silver at the EC in 2022, I started to believe, that I could be in the top of women’s 3-cushion. However, I knew there was a long way up to Therese, with her high level of play and experience and I need to continue to work disciplined, to become a constant player be in the top, like Therese is.  

Kozoom/FB How do your ambitions change. Is Denmark a country where you could live as a professional sportswoman, for example, like Korea or even the Netherlands (Therese)?

Charlotte: Its all still quite new, but I’m looking forward to seeing if and how it might change after this. My focus is still to keep develop my 3-cushion game, together with my coach Tonny Carlsen and my boyfriend Tommy. Luckily, I have these 2 people at my side, who can help me with my billiard game. And all along it needs to be fun for me, since that is my most important value as a billiard player, so that is my main focus along all the other things I focus on.

It is very hard here in DK to become professional, since there is no support from the government. But if I can go a bit down in working hours, and maintain a steady income overall, I would be very happy with that for a start, and then we will see what happens.

Charlotte Sörensen, cheering the winning point

Charlotte Sörensen, the new champion, in full focus

Charlotte with her mom

Kozoom/FB Are there people to whom you owe a lot in your career so far and in your life?

Charlotte: Yes, there is a lot, and more could be mentioned here. I always look back at the coach we had, when I was a kid, Leif Kildbrandt, and who trained us 3 times pr. week, and we were so many playing at that time. We had so much fun and he as the main reason for that. He also started to give me the tools to practice with high quality, even though I didn’t realize it at that time. He sadly passed away some years ago.

Then when I played pool, The Danish Federation hired Jörgen Sandman (General Secretary at the WPA) as a national coach. He introduced me to his training program called the PAT-program (Playing Ability Test), which I spend so many hours practicing the drills from the program at that time. This program developed my fundamentals and stroke so much, and I believe the hard work with this program, is the main reason for my success in billiards overall. It was also this program, that gave me structure in my training, and to focus on quality instead of quantity, which I consider has been my “weapon” to reaching the top and be able to compete with professionals, both in pool and 3-cushion and also with the men her in DK in Danish 5-pin. 

In 3-cushion I’m lucky to be around many good Danish players, who have always wanted to help me. But right from the start The Danish Federation set me up with Tonny Carlsen, who started coaching me, and still is. We meet around 3 times a year, but we often talk over the phone, and discuss matches, layouts etc. He also coached me at a distance during the World championships last week. We usually practice in his club, Randers Billiard Club, where we use his billiards system, which have helped me getting the lines in order, and to find new weakness in my game, that I need to work on. We have also become good friends now, and I cherish our relationship a lot.

The Danish federation has also supported me right from the start, when I started with 3-cushion. Especially the president Torsten Danielsen, and Marianne Mortensen, chair of the women’s billiard in DK. Beside supporting me with the coaching from Tonny, they also assigned me to a sports psychologist, Jørn Ravnholt. His methods have been and still is very effective during my time in 3-cushion, and to my success in these 5 years. 

Then of course my boyfriend Tommy, who also play billiards himself, and therefor also has coached me, but off course he is also my partner. Without him, I wouldn’t have the balance in my life, which is needed for this journey. He has also helped me various times, to push me out of my comfort zone, which isn’t always easy, since I’m a quite stubborn person.  

And last my mom and dad, until his passing, who have always been supporting in whatever I do, and I’m for always grateful for having them in my life.

Kozoom/FB: Can you characterize your big rivals in billiards. For example, Therese, what kind of player is she? Of the young Korean talents and the South Americans? Will the champions of the future come mainly from Asia or can Europe continue to play a leading role?

Charlotte: I don’t really know much about 3-cushion in Korea and South America, so I can’t tell anything about this. But for sure Korean players will always be rivals, they produce so many talents, which is very impressive. I’m looking forward to getting a bigger insight in billiards in Korea in time. Therese is a strong player, with so much experience, and a very professional approach to the sport. This goes both for her playing skills, but for sure also mentally. Off course I am very impressed with her on the table, but indeed also off the table, now that I have gotten to know her better. She has so much sportsmanship, and has been very friendly and supporting of me, also at the World Championship in Blois. She is such a great ambassador for women’s 3-cushion.

Kozoom/FB: How do you see the PBA, do you often see games there? What do you think of the ambiance there? And of the strength of women's billiards. What do you think, for example, about Ga-young Kim, the Korean lady who wins so many tournaments there and can make lots of money. Would she be a feared opponent for you, and the UMB world top players?

Charlotte: I don’t watch much PBA, only a little in the beginning. I know Ga-young Kim, from my time in pool, and we played together at the WC 9-ball 2 times, where she won 1 of them, in 2004. As I remember her, she is mentally a strong player, and I think she would be in top, if she played under UMB, but its hard to compare with the different setup and scoring. 

Kozoom/FB: Finally: Therese's philosophy is striking and interesting: that pool billiard players have an advantage in developing as three-cushion players. Can you elaborate on that theory a bit more?

Charlotte: I don’t know if it is an advantage, but more that pool players have skills, which are handy in 3-cushion and make some of the transition easier, though it is still a hard one. For me personally since I’ve played both pool and Danish 5-pin, I have skills from both, that helps me in 3-cushion. Danish 5-pins have the same type of balls, same type of table (only with holes), and the cueballs pattern is often comparable to 3-cushion, so that helped a lot in my transition. Also directing the 2nd ball, which is the primary goal in that game. However, when I first started, I was quite lost, since I missed both the pockets and the pins, which I used for my lines at the time, so has indeed been a hard learning curve, and been hard work. In pool - or pockets billiards in general - you need to have a very straight stroke and it takes a lot of practice to get that. Having a straight stroke gives you a higher stability, which can raise your buttom level, something I personally always have worked on in my billiard career. Furthermore, you develop skills towards hitting the 2^nd ball precisely, and directing it in the path you want, which is also a good skill in 3-cushion. You also practice your fundamentals a lot, and you get a good followed-through-shot. I also believe, that in some situations it is a good skill to have to play with an open bridge fx. with the smaller shots, or like the one I have in the final against Therese (point nr. 16).  However, when I played pool (don’t know if it is the same for other pool players), I didn’t play with much English, and I always had a lose wrist. When starting with 3-cushion those 2 things was a big transition in my skills, that I needed to learn and practice a lot, and it gave me many frustrations, since I lost some of my normal skills for a period. I still play a little Danish 5-pins, since it practices my accuracy on the 2ball, and doesn’t affect my 3-cushion in a negative way (the balls have the same size, unlike pool) and contributes to having fun. I do believe that training other billiard disciplines than your primary one, can help your developing in your primary discipline. A bonus with this, is that it can assist in uniting billiard players across disciplines and break down prejudices, something I feel could be beneficial for billiard as a whole.

Thanks for the interview, Charlotte.