Indian archer Deepika Kumari on Friday defeated ROC’s Ksenia Perova 6-5 to enter the quarterfinals of the women’s individual event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Kumari, the world number one, was locked 5-5 against the former world champion at the end of the five regulation sets. 

In the shoot-off, the Russian went first and shot a 7. The 27-year-old Indian held her nerves to hit the bullseye and win the contest.

For the three-time Olympian Deepika, this was her first win from three matches against the 2017 world champion as she became the first Indian to make the last-eight stage in an individual event of the archery competition in the Olympics.

Starting off the one-arrow shoot-off, the Russian crumbled under pressure as she misfired a seven while a composed Deepika sealed the issue 6-5 (10-7) without any fuss.

She will be up against South Korea’s An San in the quarterfinals of the women’s individual event.

The Korean, who had broken a 25-year-old Olympic record en route to topping the ranking round, displayed incredible shooting of three 10s in her last three arrows to set up a clash against the Indian.

Deepika had faced the Korean once earlier, in the final of the ‘Tokyo 2020 Test Event’ at the same venue of Yumenoshima Park in 2019, and the Indian had lost to her younger opponent in straight sets.

“Now it’s going to be tougher and tougher ahead,” said Deepika, who is chasing the country’s first-ever Olympic medal in archery.

Deepika started strong and raced to a 2-0 lead, drilling a perfect 10 in her second arrow as the experienced Russian faltered with a 7 in the last arrow to concede the set by three points (28-25).

Up 19-17 after two arrows in the second set, the Indian needed a 9 to take a 4-0 lead but only to misfire a 7 as the Russian gained control by one point (26-27) with a 10 for a 2-2 overall score.

It was some tight shooting from both archers from there on as Deepika edged out narrowly (28-27) courtesy a 10 in her first arrow.

A 10 eluded Deepika in the fourth set as both players hit an identical 9-8-9 to take the match to the fifth set with the Indian in the driver’s set with a 5-3 lead.

But the pressure got the better of Deepika once again as she could not capitalise her lead and misfired a 7 in her first arrow, conceding the set to her world number 8 opponent (25-28) to force a shoot-off after being 5-5.

Call it a stroke of luck or something else for Deepika, Perova misfired a 7 to start off the one-arrow shoot-off and the Indian held her nerves to seal the issue by hitting the bull’s eye.