Dipika Pallikal Karthik (née Pallikal; born 21 September 1991) is an Indian professional squash player. She is the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women's rankings. Dipika Pallikal came to prominence in 2011, when she won three WISPA tour titles. She broke into the top 10 in December 2012.

Early life

Dipika Pallikal was born in

Kottayam Kottayam () is a municipal town in the Indian state of Kerala. Flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. It is the district headquarters of Kottayam district, located in south ...

into a Malayali

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

family. She is the daughter of Sanjiv and Susan Pallikal. Her mother played international cricket for the Indian women's team.

Professional career

Deepika turned professional in 2006, but her career was filled with ups and downs initially. She became more consistent and started notching up winning performances after her brief training stint in Egypt in the beginning of 2011. She clinched her first of three WISPA titles for 2011 in September by winning the Orange County Open in Irvine, California. She notched 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. However it was her 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, she 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. In August the same year, she went one step further when she reached the semi-finals of a gold event, the 2012

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

, another first for an Indian. Deepika Pallikal was an integral part of the Indian squash team that finished fifth in the

2012 Women's World Team Squash Championships The 2012 Women's World Team Squash Championships is the women's edition of the 2012 World Team Squash Championships, which serves as the world team championship for squash players. The event were held in Nîmes, France and took place from Novembe ...

. India, seeded tenth in the event, defeated higher ranked

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

in the process. She defeated players like

Madeline Perry Madeline Perry (born 11 February 1977 in Banbridge, Northern Ireland) is a former professional squash player from Northern Ireland. She was raised in Northern Ireland and lives in Philadelphia. In November 2006 at the World Open in Belfast, s ...

in the tournament.

Joshna Chinappa Joshna Chinappa (born 15 September 1986) is an Indian professional squash player. She reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 10 in July 2016. She was the first Indian to win the British Junior Squash Championship title in 2005 in t ...

was another key player in the Indian line-up. In February 2013, she won her sixth WSA title of her career after outplaying Joey Chan of Hong Kong 11–9, 11–7, 11–4 in the final of the Meadowood Pharmacy Open in the Canadian city of Winnipeg. In December 2012, she broke into the top 10 by achieving a career best of ranking of 10. She became the first Female Squash player to be conferred with the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

, India's second highest sporting award in the year 2012. In February 2014 she was back at number 10 in the Women's Squash Association (WSA) rankings despite enduring a tough start to the year. At the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

she along with

won the squash women's doubles gold medal, making it India's first ever Commonwealth Games medal in the sport. Pallikal picked up her 10th Tour title in January 2015 after triumphing at the Winter Club Open. At the February 2016

South Asian Games The South Asian Games (SAG or SA Games), formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games (SAFG or SAF Games), is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic ...

, she was part of the gold medal winning Indian Women's team 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. Pallikal Karthik competed under her maiden name (Pallikal) until 2016, adding her married name for the 2016-17 PSA Season commencing August 2016. Following her second Indian national Title (see below) she continued her good form winning the Australian Open, her 11th PSA title in August 2016.

Boycott of National Championship and Triumphant return

Pallikal Karthik refused to participate in the National Championship Squash between 2012 and 2015 due to the inequality in prize money where the women's championship winner was awarded only 40% of the prize money of the men's championship winner. Equal prize money was finally agreed to for the 2016 championships where Deepika Pallikal Karthik upset

4–11, 11–6, 11–2, 11–8, winning the title for the second time

Career statistics

Following are the highlights of Dipika's WSA tour career.

Awards

Personal life

Pallikal Karthik studied at Ethiraj College for Women majoring in English (IIIrd year-2012-2013). On 15 November 2013, she got engaged to Indian Cricketer Dinesh Karthik. whom she married in both traditional Christian wedding style and Hindu wedding style on 18 August 2015 and 20 August 2015, respectively. The couple became parents to twin boys, Kabir and Zian, on 18th October 2021.

References

External links

* *
profile at Squash Rackets Federation of India

Dipika Pallikal Karthik at Times of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pallikal, Dipika 1991 births Living people Indian female squash players Squash players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Squash players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Squash players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Squash players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India Commonwealth Games medallists in squash Asian Games medalists in squash Asian Games silver medalists for India Asian Games bronze medalists for India Squash players at the 2010 Asian Games Squash players at the 2014 Asian Games Squash players at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games South Asian Games gold medalists for India Recipients of the Arjuna Award Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Racket sportspeople from Chennai Indian Christians Sportswomen from Tamil Nadu 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people South Asian Games medalists in squash 20th-century Indian women