ANTALYA – Look, it’s Orhan Erogul at the table in Antalya. On his level (just over 1 average) a joy to behold, and above all a true afficionado of the game. Rarely will you meet a player with passion so alive after a 40-year quest through the world of billiards, one who can tell stories about his sport, is still eager to improve and travels to major tournaments such as the Agipi Masters and World Cups to watch the greats.
,,The beauty of billiards is, you can always improve, it never stops being fascinating, it never stops offering something new’’, says the 54-year old German who lives near Frankfurt, born in Istanbul from a Turkish father and a German mother. He moved to Germany when he was three years old.
He enjoys to observe in the billiard rooms, always on the lookout for new dimensions in the game. His teachers were icons: Siegfried Spielmann, René Vingerhoedt, Klaus Hose, Marco Zanetti (for a decade), Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Martin Horn.
His favorite style of play? His favorite players? Orhan: ,,I enjoy watching all the top players, they all have their own interpretation, their own stroke, their own solutions. I love Caudron, the allrounder, Zanetti and the complexity of his stroking technique, Jaspers, the computer player, Blomdahl’s accelerations, Horn’s mental strength, the presence of mind that Kim brings, Sayginer’s magic.’’
Orhan Erogul (lives with his wife since he was 18, has a now 17 year-old daughter named Sina), has been playing billiards for 40 years now. he participated in fifteen World Cups, and managed to beat the likes of Rui Costa and Murat Naci Coklu.
He studied architecture, but now has his own firm in floorbuilding and flor constructions.
All aspects of the billiard sport are fascinating to the likeable German: ,,I have played around 40 average in 47/2, around 7 in 1-cushion and 18 in 71/2. My 3-cushion is improving these past few years, now that I have given up smoking and drinking.’’
This morning, Erogul embarked on his new World Cup adventure: in a flight with Ekrem Beyaz and Konstantinos Bartsokas. he played Turkish player Beyaz first, and will later meet the Greek.
He started off well in his first match, but then hit a bad patch. ,,I did not check the scoreboard often enough, when I was approaching the finish line. I was admiring my opponent, Ekrem Beyaz, whom I had watched a few years ago in Izmir. Roland Forthomme had all sorts of trouble beating him. He is a beautiful player who owns a room in the east of Turkey.’’
Orhan Erogul won his match by a margin: 30-15 in 25 innings, and can now get ready to face the Greek: Bartsokas.
In the first sessions of the day, there was a high class match between Semsettin Azimli and Mehmet Yavas: Azimli won it 30-25 in 19 innings, helped by a run of 13.