Dipika Pallikal has been a trailblazer in Indian women's squash and the 30-year-old added two more great achievements to her long list of accomplishments, finishing on top of the podium at the World Doubles Squash Championships in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events.
What makes the victories even more special is that Dipika welcomed twins with husband Dinesh Karthik just six months back, and was participating in her first tournament since.
Pallikal and her women's doubles partner Joshna Chinappa, former Commonwealth champions, were seeded third in the tournament and defeated second seeds Sarah-Jane Perry and Alison Waters 11-9, 4-11, 11-8 for the women's doubles gold medal.
In the mixed doubles event, Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal, World Doubles silver medallists from 2016, defeated England's Adrian Waller and Alison Waters 11-6, 11-8 to win the title.
This is the first time that India has won the World titles. Their previous best were two silver medals in 2014 and 2016. Dipika and Saurav lost in the mixed doubles final in 2016 while Saurav and Ritwik Bhattacharya finished as men's doubles runners-up in 2014.
Meanwhile, Vikram Malhotra and Joshna Chinappa finished tenth in mixed doubles after losing 11-4, 11-6 to Malaysian pair Mohammad Syafiq Kamal and Aifa Azman in their ninth-tenth place playoffs, according to a report on Olympis.com.
Ramit Tandon and Vikram Malhotra, India's only entry in men's doubles, won their 17th place playoff against Wales' Elliott Morris and Owain Taylor 11-7, 11-10 on Saturday.
(With inputs from IANS)
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