Deepika Kumari qualified for the quarterfinals in women's individual archery event with a shoot-off win over Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) at the Tokyo Olympics.
The world number 1 will now face An San of South Korea who set a new Olympic record in the ranking round.
Deepika started off the match with 28 points and bagged the opening set as her opponent registered a score of 25. The Indian archer was on track to win the 2nd set until she hit a 7 on her final arrow of the set.
A 10 followed by a couple of 9s resulted in 4-2 lead for Deepika at the end of the 3rd set. In the 4th set, both the archers shot identical scores of 9,8 and 9 to tie the set but Indian was still in a 5-3 lead.
Perova, silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, held her nerve to win the 5th set as she registered a score of 28. The Russian was aided by Deepika's 7 on the first arrow to push the match into a shoot-off.
Deepika shot a 10 in the shoot-off in reply to Perova's 7 and booked a place in the quarterfinals.
The quarter-final will be held at 11:30 AM IST.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)