Dipika Pallikal shocked 14th seeded Jaclyn Hawkes of New Zealand 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 in the first round of the squash World Open here on Tuesday.
Dipika, who reached a career-high 19th in the rankings on Monday, celebrated her rise with a stunning win.
Her recent title-success in the Dread Series 2, a WISPA event held in the USA, helped her climb to a new high. Adding glitter is the fact that she is among the nominees for the ‘WISPA Most improved player of the year' award.
The award will be presented at the seventh annual World Squash Awards function to be held on Nov. 5 at the official dinner of the World Open here.
Others who have been selected along with Dipika are Annie Au (Hong Kong), Kasey Brown (Australia), Raneem El Weleily (Egypt) and Joelle King (New Zealand).
