Archery: Deepika keeps medal hopes alive, enters pre-quarterfinals
What's the story
World No. 1 archer Deepika Kumari survived some anxious moments before getting past US teenager Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez 6-4 to sail into the pre-quarterfinals of the women's individual section and keep Indian medal hopes alive at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday.
Noticeably, Kumari started off hitting the red zone, capping a poor seven at the floodlit Yumenoshima Park.
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She lost first set but bounced back to take lead
Kumari lost the first set by one point but she bounced back strongly with three 10s in a row to take a 4-2 lead. She, however, failed to wrap up the match in the fourth set as she misfired a six in her second arrow.
Match
She finished with a poor 8 in the final set
The 18-year-old American made it 4-4, winning the fourth set by one point (25-24). In the winner-take-all fifth set, Kumari had two 9s to start with before finishing with a poor 8.
Needing a 10 in her last arrow to force a shoot-off, Mucino-Fernandez signed off with a nine in what was a promising campaign for the American teenager.
Round two
She had defeated Bhutan's Karma in round two earlier
Earlier, Kumari sailed into the second round with a facile 6-0 win over lower-ranked Karma of Bhutan in her opening match.
World number 193 Karma, the flag bearer of Bhutan -- a country where archery is a national sport -- during the opening ceremony, had poor scores of 23, 23, and 24 in the third set where she managed a 10.
Atanu Das
Atanu Das to play against China's Yu-Cheng on Thursday
The Indian also had a slow start, scoring 26 each in the first two sets, before she picked up with a 27 to seal her last-32 berth.
Notably, Kumari's husband Atanu Das, who slipped to 35th place in the ranking, begins his campaign against China's Deng Yu-Cheng in his opening round of 64 matches on Thursday.
Pravin Jadhav
Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai make second-round exits
Meanwhile, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai made second-round exits.
Olympic debutant Jadhav knocked out world number 2 Galsan Bazarzhapov in his opening match only to suffer a heavy defeat to world champion Brady Ellison in the second round.
Rai too had made a second-round exit, going down to Israel's Itay Shanny in a tight shoot-off finish for a heartbreaking exit in his last Olympics.
Tarundeep Rai
This was second successive round two exit for Rai
Noticeably, both Rai and Shanny were locked 5-5 but Shanny, who is 15 years younger to Rai, sealed the match 10-9 with a perfect score in the shoot-off.
This was the second successive round two exit for three-time Olympian Rai who had made his Games debut at Athens 2004.
In the 2012 London Olympics too, Rai had lost in the second round.
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Jadhav had raised expectations for the misfiring Indian archers
Meanwhile, Jadhav, with a 31st place in the ranking round, had raised expectations for the misfiring Indian archers as he dropped just one point to win the first set en route to a stunning 6-0 win against Bazarzhapov under windy conditions at the Yumenoshima Park.