Skipping World Teams for World singles: Dipika

The highest-ranked Indian woman squash player, Dipika Pallikal, would be skipping next month's World Team Championships in Canada to be fully-prepared for the singles World Championships to be held in the same month.
"My main goal for this year was to represent my country at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and win medals. It has been an amazing year for me and my family. Winning medals at both the Games will always be my biggest achievement since the Games took up much time this year, I missed out on few big tournaments on the professional circuit and as a result, my ranking has slipped to 16th," Dipika told PTI

The team event is scheduled from December 1 to 6 in Canada, while the singles event is set to be held from December 15 to 20 in Egypt.
"I dedicated this year to winning medals for the country and right now my immediate goal is to concentrate on the professional circuit and get back my ranking to where it deserves to be. The reason I am not playing the World Teams is best left unsaid!
"The World Open is right after the Teams and it's the most important tournament in our calendar. So my full focus is getting back to train for the next one month and playing the World Championships," she explained.

In Dipika's absence, Joshana Chinnappa will be taking part along with Anaka Alankamony, yesterday's losing finalist Sachika Ingale and Harshit Kaur -- the under 19 national champion.