PARIS: Veteran archer Deepika Kumari crumbled under pressure once again, suffering a 4-6 loss to Korea's Suhyeon Nam in the women's individual event quarter-finals to bring down curtains on India's campaign at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Deepika had qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating Germany's Michelle Kroppen 6-4 earlier in the day.
Deepika had defeated the 19-year-old Nam in straight sets in the semi-final at the Shanghai World Cup in April en route winning a silver medal, but on Saturday the Indian stalwart could not repeat that performance.
The two archers were tied 4-4 after four sets but Nam was rewarded for her consistency as she claimed the fifth set to enter the semi-finals.
Deepika, who has been criticised for her below-par show in the team event, was not consistent enough as scores of six and seven in the second and fourth sets pegged her back.
The Indian 30-year-old Indian recorded 28-26 in the first set to garner two points. She then hit a 10, 6 and 9 as Nam brought things on level terms, winning the second set 28-25.
Deepika again took a lead, winning the third set 29-28 with two 10s. The Indian then scored 10, 7, 10 to lose the fourth set 27-29.
In the decider, Deepika scored 9, 9 and 9 to lose the fifth set after the Korean produced scores of 10, 9 and 10.
Earlier, Deepika qualified for the quarter-finals of the women's individual archery event after defeating Germany's Michelle Kroppen in the 1/8 elimination round but Bhajan Kaur crashed out following a loss to Indonesia's Diananda Choirunisa 6-5.
In the other contest, India's Bhajan fought well but her Indonesian opponent was far too good on the day.
Choirunisa was ahead by two points with a scoreline of 4-2 by the third set. After the Indonesian won the first set 29-28 for two points, Bhajan took two points in the next to make it 27-25.
However, in the third set Choirunisa bounced back to win 28-26. In the fourth, the Indian archer did well to take one point home with a scoreline of 28-28 and as did the Indonesian, taking the scoreline to 5-3.
In the fifth and final set, Bhajan did extremely well to earn two points with the scoreline drawn at 27-27, forcing the contest into shoot-off where she shot eight while her opponent shot nine.
Bhajan thus lost 5-6 to the Indonesian archer in the 1/8 Elimination round for the quarter-finals. Agencies
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