Kristina Olegovna Tkach (; born 19 January 1999) is a Russian professional pool player. She became the

2017 WPA World Nine-ball Junior Championship The 2017 WPA World Nine-ball Junior Championship was a professional youth 9-Ball World Championship held between October 30 and November 2, 2017. The event was split into three competitions, Under 17s, boys and girls. Sanjin Pehlivanović won th ...

winner, defeating Lee Woo-jin in the final 9–6. Tkach is a four time European champion having won the

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

event in 2016 and 2019, as well as

Straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

in 2017 and 2019. In addition, she is a nine-time Junior European Champion. Tkach is a regular player on the

Euro Tour The Euro Tour is a series of professional pool events set around Europe, founded in 1992, and created by the European Pocket Billiard Federation. The Tour's first event was the ''Belgium Open'', held on May 29 – 31, 1992. The event was won by M ...

events, reaching the Tour number one in 2016. She is the second most successful player of all time on the tour behind

Jasmin Ouschan Jasmin Ouschan (; born 10 January 1986) is an Austrian professional pool player from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Her first professional competition occurred in 2002, but she did not officially become a professional member of the Women's Professional ...

, having won seven events beginning with the

2016 North Cyprus Open The 2016 Dynamic Northern Cyprus Open, was the third Euro Tour 9-Ball pool event in 2016. The event was won by Austria's Mario He who defeated Greece's Nikos Ekonomopoulos 9–5 in the final. In winning the event, He won his first Euro Tour even ...

Career

Kristina Tkach was born 19 January 1999 in Moscow, Russia. Tkach began playing in 2008, being supported by her parents to take up the game.

Early career (2008–2014)

Before turning 10 years of age, Tkach finished third at the Russian Under 18 Championship 2008 in

. Tkach then moved in 2009 to play

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

competing in the Moscow Under 18 City Championship final, finishing as runner-up and also reaching the semi-finals in the women's competition

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

. The following year she won the junior women in nine-ball and ten-ball her first two out of a total of twenty titles at Moscow Under 18 Championships. Tkach also competed in the ladies event at the championship where she lost in the final 18–50 against Anna Mashirina. In 2012 Tkach played in her first European Youth Championships, at which she was the youngest medal winner at 13 years and 7 months. She had reached the semi-finals in the eight-ball event losing to Kamila Khodjaeva. In November 2012, she reached her first adult Russian championship semi-final, in both the straight pool and eight-ball events. In the European youth Championship 2013 she reached the semi-finals in both the ten-ball and nine-ball disciplines. In October 2013, she won three of the four titles at the Moscow City Championship in the women's events. A month later she reached her first adult Russian championship finals, but lost to Anna Maschirina (ten-ball) and

Daria Sirotina Daria Sirotina (born 22 June 1993) is a Russian amateur snooker and professional pool player. She won the European Ladies Team Championship, partnered with Anastasia Nechaeva, each year from 2012 to 2016. She was runner-up in the women's 2013 ...

(nine-ball). In addition, she finished in straight and in eight-ball in third place, reaching the semi-final or better in all five events.

Euro Tour number 1 (2014–present)

In March 2014, she played in her first Women's European Championship. After she was eliminated in both the straight and ten-ball events in the preliminary round, she reached the quarter-finals in the eight-ball, in which she against defeated by the Kamila Khodjaeva 5–6. After the European Championships, Tkach played in her first

event, won her first medal, by finishing second at the 2014 North Cyprus Open, being defeated by

. In August, Tkach won the eight-ball Junior European Pool Championship with a 5–4 final victory against Kamila Khodjaeva. At the beginning of 2015, Tkach became the Russian under-18 champion in all four disciplines for the first time. In November 2015 she reached the WPA World Junior Championship the quarter-final before losing to Chinas

Jiang Teng Jiang may refer to: * ''Jiang'' (rank), rank held by general officers in the military of China *Jiang (surname), several Chinese surnames **Jiang Zemin (1926–2022), as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party *Jiang River The Jiang Rive ...

. Despite being eliminated in the first round of the straight pool event and in the ten-ball in the quarter-finals, she reached the final of eight-ball event of the 2015 European championships. She won the match 6–3 against Kateryna Polowyntschuk, to win her first European Championship. In June 2016, she won the

, defeating Marharyta Fjafilawa 7–3, to win her first Euro Tour tournament. At the 2016 Junior European Championships won three events, defeating Diana Khodjaeva 5–3 and 6–5, (ten-ball, nine-ball) and Dina Fatychowa 5–1, (eight-ball). A few days later, she won 7–4 in the final against Katarzyna Wesołowska to win the 2016 Albanian Open. The win made Tkach the number one-ranked player on the Euro Tour. The following season Tkach won the

2016 Portugal Open Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film dir ...

against

Ina Kaplan Ina Kaplan ( Jentschura; born 14 May 1987) is a German professional pool player. She is an eleven-time German national champion and is the second female player (after Franziska Stark) to win three of four disciplines in one event at the champio ...

7–4 winning her third Euro Tour event in a row. During the

2016 Kremlin World Cup The 2016 Kremlin Cup was a professional pool tournament in the discipline Ten-ball, held from 9–12 November 2016 in Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. The winner was Alexander Kazakis, who defeated Thorsten Hohmann 9–6 in the final. Dsmi ...

, Tkach, along with

was the only woman the round of the last 32 where she lost to Denis Grabe. She won her fifth Euro Tour medal at the

2017 Portugal Open The 2017 Dynamic Portugal Open, was the second Euro Tour 9-Ball pool event in 2017. The event was won by Netherlands' Nick van den Berg who defeated Spain's David Alcaide 9–5 in the final. In winning the event, van den Berg won his tenth Euro T ...

losing 3–7 to Ouschan in the final. After finishing second in the one-year ranking of the Euro Tour after the Portugal Open, she qualified for the nine-ball Competition the

World Games 2017 The 2017 World Games ( pl, Igrzyska Światowe 2017), commonly known as Wrocław 2017 (german: Breslau 2017; sli, Brassel 2017), was the tenth World Games, a major international multi-sport event, meant for sports, or disciplines or events withi ...

. At the Games in Wrocław she lost in the quarter-finals against the subsequent gold medal winner Chen Siming. In the European Youth Championship 2017 she again won all three competitions for junior women. In the finals she defeated Daryna Sirantschuk (5–0, ten-ball), Weronika Karwik (5–0, eight-ball), Valery Trushevskaya (6–1, nine-ball). In November 2017, Tkach entered the

where she reached the final before defeating Lee Woo-jin to become junior world champion. She was the fifth European and the second Russian, after Natalja Seroschtan (2013) to win the title. In April 2019, she won the Women's Pro Players Championship and was presented with a trophy made of waterford crystal, valued at $500. The trophy shattered when a member of Tkach's entourage dropped the box it was in while transporting it out of the arena.

Team career

With the Russian national team Tkach won the European Championships in 2015 and 2017, with runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2016. Tkach was part of the European team that defeated the USA three times in a row in the first three editions of the

Atlantic Challenge Cup The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

(2015, 2016, 2017).

Titles & Achievements

* American Straight Pool Championship (2022) * Super Billiards Expo Players Championship (2019) *

** North Cyprus Open (2016) **

Portugal Open The Portugal Open (formerly named Estoril Open) was an ATP and WTA clay court tennis tournament in Portugal. The event took place at the sports complex of Jamor in Oeiras, of which Estoril Court Central is the most prominent show court. In 20 ...

(2016) ** Albanian Open (2016) **

Italian Open Italian Open may refer to: *Italian Open (tennis), a Masters 1000 level tennis tournament played in Rome each year. *Italian Open (golf) The DS Automobiles Italian Open ( it, Open d'Italia) is the men's national open golf championship of Italy. It ...

(2018) **

(2018) ** Treviso Open (2018) ** Treviso Open (2019) ** Lasko Open (2021) *

European Pool Championship European Pool Championship (also called Dynamic European Championships) is a pool competition organized by the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF). The tournament is held annually since 1980. It should not be confused with the series of small ...

Eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

(2016, 2019) **

2017, 2019) ** Team (2015, 2017) * Russian National Championship **

Straight Pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

(2014, 2016, 2017) ** Ten-ball (2015, 2017) **

(2016, 2017) **

Nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

(2016, 2017) * Atlantic Challenge Cup: (2015, 2016, 2017) *

WPA World Nine-ball Junior Championship WPA may refer to: Computing * Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard * Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing *Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance A ...

(2017)

Notes

References

External links

Kristina Tkatsch
at kozoom.com
Kristina Tkatsch
on the website of

Kristina Tkatsch
on the website of European Pocket Billiard Federation {{DEFAULTSORT:Tkach, Kristina 1999 births Sportspeople from Moscow Russian pool players Living people Female pool players