Squash ace Dipika Pallikal has found a new doubles partner — India cricketer Dinesh Karthik. The couple who first met nearly a year ago while training with Shanker Basu in Chennai's Maverick Gym, were engaged in a ceremony at the ITC Grand Chola Hotel in that city on November 15, says a report in The Indian Express.
The low-key ceremony was attended only by the two families and their close friends. There was a Christian and a traditional Hindu part to the ceremony, and Dipika changed from a Ritu Kumar creation to a red saree during it. Karthik wore a cream kurta-pyjama and camelot blue Nehru jacket through both parts of the ceremony.
Soon after the engagement, Dipika, who is currently number 12 in the world, flew to Australia to train, while the 28-year-old wicketkeeper batsman travelled to Meerut to play in his side Tamil Nadu's Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh.
According to a report in the DNA, the 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman found his lady love, Pallikal, 22, after both ended up training under the same fitness coach here. After a one-year courtship, both decided to get engaged at the ITC Chola last week.
Though Karthik could not find a berth for himself in the South Africa bound squad, yet, the Tamil Nadu batsman celebrated the occasion with a crafty 133 against Saurashtra in a Ranji Trophy match here today.
The couple also posted a photograph on Twitter soon after their engagement.
Karthik and Pallikal have decided to tie the nuptial knot sometime in 2015 as both want to concentrate on their respective careers at the moment.
Meanwhile a report in Deccan Chronicle says, after his divorce from his first wife Nikita, whom he married in 2007, Karthik had decided to focus only on cricket.
“Both of them enjoyed each other's company in the course of their fitness sessions and somehow managed to succeed in keeping their affair away from the media glare. Karthik featured in the ICC Champions Trophy as well as India's tour of Zimbabwe this year. Pallikal is the first Indian squash woman to break into the top 10 in the world rankings and is one of the most beautiful sportspersons in the country,” says the report.
