Semih Saygıner (born 12 November 1964), nicknamed Mr. Magic or The Turkish Prince, is a Turkish world champion professional carom billiards player specialized in three-cushion event.[1]
Family life
Semih Saygıner was born to a tailor father Faruk and a homemaker mother Süreyya in Adapazarı, Turkey on November 12, 1964.[2] He is the fifth of six siblings. His parents passed away due to a traffic accident in 1978 when he was 14 years old. Saygıner then started playing billiards. He had a good performance in high school but left for depression over the loss of his mother and father.[1][2][3]
Saygıner opened up a billiards hall, and taught the cue sport. In 1995, he married Aygen Berk, a student of his, the women's billiards champion of Turkey and co-founder of the Turkish Billiards Federation.[3] Their marriage ended a few years later.[1]
From 1996 to 1997, he served as the president of the Turkish Billiards Federation.[1]
He began playing billiards at age 16, and focused on the cue sport. A year later, he participated at Istanbul Championship, and won his first Turkish title. Ranking many years on the second place at national level, he finally became Turkish champion in 1987.[1]
In 1991, he participated at German Open. The next year, he placed world eighth when he defeated world-champion Raymond Ceulemans by 3-0 in Berlin. In 1994, he transferred to the Netherlands Billiards Teams League, one of the most important leagues of billiards. Saygıner won the Three-cushion World Cup held 1998 in Antalya after defeating Dutchman Gerwin Walentijn in the final.[1] Saygıner won the 1999 CEB European Three-cushion Championship by defeating Dion Nelin of Denmark. He nearly won it again the next year but lost to Daniel Sánchez. He was the first from his country to win that tournament. His countryman Murat Naci Çoklu won the title five years later.
Saygıner transferred to Portugal playing for FC Porto Billiards team. He captained the team for three years, and won the bronze medal at the 2004–05 European Three-cushion Cup with the team.
He is the 25-time winner of Turkish Grand Prix in total. He won the Turkish champion title 14 times in three-cushion. Furthermore, he has ten champion titles in carom billiards in Turkey, as well as one each in cadre 47/2 and one-cushion. In 2006, he ranked at 8th place of the world bests of Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB).[1] His highest average in a match is 3.571 (50 points in 14 innings).
In 2009, Saygıner signed a contract with the cue-stick producer Longoni.[5] Under the contract, a series of cue sticks that bear Saygıner's name has been available from the company.[1][6]
Saygıner announced his retirement from active sports in 2006, continuing to participate only in some international competitions. His last international participation was in 2007.[7] However, he made his comeback in 2015 by winning the Turkish championship again. Following the championship, he was named to take part in the Turkey national team.[4]
