Still in her teens, Dipika has traveled to more places than girls her age can dream off.
At nine, she started playing squash by accident. Her best friend used to play the game and she had gone to watch her. She tried her hand at it and soon liked it.
"I used to play tennis, but had quit it a year earlier. My grandparents kept cribbing that I should not play in the sun so much," she says, explaining her initiation to squash.
Her grandmother was probably worried that the winsome lass's complexion would be marred by the relentless Chennai sun.
But after attending a squash camp and beating all the 25 youngsters present, Dipika realized she had the potential to do well in the game.
"It was a matter of hitting the ball. I could hit it easily as I had played tennis earlier," she says, looking back on her early days in the game.
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