CHENNAI: She turned 20 only four months ago. Yet, every time she looks at the team that going into the inaugural WSF Under - 21 World Cup - Chennai Open, she sighs admittedly, “I feel like the big sister in the bunch!” Going in with Asian Junior U-19 champ Abaka Alankamony, Ravi Dixit, Ramit Tandon and Karan Malik, Chennai’s very own princess of the squash court recounts how she was handed the captain’s racquet, “We had a team meeting in the morning (on Tuesday) and the first thing that came up was, ‘Who’s the Captain?’. I immediately ducked for cover and thought in my head ‘Oh no, not me’,” she says, pulling a mock grimace over her dazzling smile. The result was inevitable: not only is she the highest ranked player going into this World Cup (with a career high #15 accorded to her last week), she’s also the oldest and the most experienced. “We’re really tight and relate well as a team because we’ve grown up with the sport and each other,” she adds.In a freewheeling chat with City Express, after it was announced that global nutrition giant Herbalife had signed her on as a brand ambassador, Dipika Rebecca Pallikal, was a picture of poise on the eve of her first tourney, after achieving the highest rank that any Indian has managed in squash. She can certainly afford to be, considering she’s back home. “With my training schedule, I get to come to Chennai for only 2-3 months,” she says. But with this tournament she gets to combine both business and pleasure. “As soon as I came down and the dates (for the Chennai Open) were out, I told everybody I knew from family to friends, that they better be there at every match I play,” she adds with animation, “Or else..!” she trails. And the pressure of playing with people you know in the audience, “It’s huge. Everyone wants you to win all the time. Let’s see,” she adds.Though she’s been training and spending time with five-time World Champion Sarah Fitzgerald, she still asserts that the Indian Squash Academy, where it all began for her a decade ago, “is one of the best facilities for squash.” With a little government funding and a lot more passionate coaches like her initial mentors Cyrus Poncha and Major S Maniam, “we can take on the world,” she reckons. Right now? “Right now, we’re never going to get close to the amount spent on cricket, but we are doing our best to get there,” she says hopefully.With all the squash she’s played over the last decade, does she ever get saturated with the sport, we wonder? “Of course I do,” she admits quickly, before adding, “But I wouldn’t be who or where I am without it. I make sure there’s zero squash during my home-breaks,anyway,” she says, revealing her recuperation route.She may be super famous, but like any other 20-year-old, Dipika also has a common curse — college, “Oh my God, I really should go see my teachers or go for classes more,” she laughs. A literature student at Etjiraj College for Women, the mention of college reminds her of her final semester exams coming up. Is she worried about passing them? She conjures up an exaggeratedly high eyebrow and says, “They better!”
Comments
0 comment