Dipika Pallikal (Born on September 21, 1991 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu) is an Indian professional squash player. Dipika is the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women's rankings in December 2012.
Dipika played her first international tournament in London when she was in sixth grade, and to date, Dipika has won the German Open, Dutch Open, French Open, Australia Open, Scottish Open on the circuit European Junior Squash. Dipika Pallikal became the second Indian ever to enter the top 100 in squash (Wispa ranking) Classification of increase to the 91st of his career in May 2007.
Dipika confirmed her first of three WISPA titles for 2011 in September by winning the Orange County Open in Irvine, California. She achieved up her second in the United States with another WISPA tour event victory. The third came in Hong Kong in the Crocodile Challenge Cup in December 2011 and that took her to number 17 in world rankings.
Dipika's performance in the World Open that shot her into the limelight. She finished in the top eight. She claimed a ranking of 14 as a result of these victories in February 2012, surpassing the earlier best world ranking by an Indian - 27th by former national champion Misha Grewal in 1995.
In January 2012, Dipika became the first Indian ever to reach the summit clash of a Silver event when she reached the final of the Tournament of Champions squash meet in New York. Dipika went one step further when she reached the semi-finals of a gold event in the 2012 Australian Open head at Canberra in August, another first for an Indian.
At the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Dipika Pallikal along with Joshna Chinappa won the squash women's doubles gold medal, making it India's first ever Commonwealth Games medal in the sport.
In 2012, Dipika Pallikal received Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award and become the first Female Squash player to achieve this Award. Dipika also awarded with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India in 2014.
Dipika was part of the gold medal winning Indian Women's team in 2016 South Asian Games. She was then defeated in the first round of the 2016 PSA Women's World Championship in April. In May she was part of the silver medal winning Indian Women's team at the Asian Team Championship in Taipei.
On 15 November 2013, Dipika Pallikal became engaged to Indian Cricketer Dinesh Karthik and married in 2015. Dipika married in both traditional Christian wedding style and Hindu wedding style on 18 August 2015 and 20 August 2015, respectively. Mrs Karthik competed under her maiden name (Pallikal) until 2016, adding her married name for the 2016-17 PSA Season commencing August 2016.
Dipika Pallikal look beautiful has been a plus for their popularity. Sports and blending the beauty always work. It works even better when actually playing well.
