World number one archer Deepika Kumari beat former world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling shoot-off to advance to the women's individual quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics here on Friday.
Locked 5-5 after the regulation five-setter, the 27-year-old Indian held her nerves in the shoot-off to deliver a perfect 10, hitting the bull's eye, to topple the Russian, a team silver medallist at the 2016 Rio 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.
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.
