India's beloved sports couple: How Dinesh Karthik overcame heartbreak from and betrayal to find love in CWG-winning Squash star

Dinesh Karthik's comeback to India's international team is nothing short of spectacular. His performances for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2022 were exemplary, and having been called up after that, he has established himself as India's designated finisher in the team. But this is not the first time in his life that Karthik has had to overcome major adversity.

A blossoming marriage that ended in betrayal
Karthik was in love with his childhood friend Nikita Vanjara. The two grew up as friends and once their families approved, they decided to turn their friendship into a relationship. In 2007, when Dinesh Karthik was 21 years old, he tied the knot with Nikita.

But five years into their marriage, their wedding had hit a roadblock. It was then that Murali Vijay, who was good friends with Karthik, entered into an alleged affair with Nikita. The duo of Karthik and Vijay were teammates in the Tamil Nadu cricket team and during a crucial Vijay Hazare match against Karnataka, Dinesh found out about the affair.

Soon after this, the duo decided to part ways, after which Nikita married Vijay.

Finding love again
Karthik had a tumultuous life, both personally and career-wise, after his divorce from Nikita. He was not in contention for the Indian team and was not doing too well in the IPL as well as in domestic cricket. But this was when he found love again, this time in Indian squash player Dipika Pallikal.

In an earlier interview with IANS, Dipika Pallikal recalled her first meeting with Karthik and said, "In fact, the first time we met was at a marathon some five years ago. After that, we met at the gym and, if I remember, I left for practice without even saying bye to him. Slowly we got to know each other. We got to know each other at the gym, but there was nothing more, contrary to what most media reports seem to suggest."

The duo met before 2013 but it was in that year that their love blossomed. “It was February 2013, and I had just won a tournament in Canada while Dinesh was playing domestic cricket in India. I went to Leeds (England) to train for a week and I found him there, coming all the way to see me. That was when I fell for him, realising not many would do something like that. He used to watch me train at the academy and even tried his hand at squash. He played much better than I thought," Pallikal recalled in an interview with Sportskeeda.

Karthik proposed to Dipika Pallikal in London after India won the Champions Trophy. It was on November 15, 2013, when Dinesh and Dipika made their relationship official after exchanging rings in Chennai, in the presence of their family members and close friends. They got married in 2015 — a Christian wedding on August 18, followed by a Telugu wedding following Hindu rituals on August 20.

Life after marriage

But their busy sporting schedules meant building their family took some time. Pallikal is a top-level squash player, as mentioned before, and it is no surprise that her career was blooming as well. At the same time, Karthik was slowly making his comeback, captaining the Kolkata Knight Riders while Pallikal was making massive strides in her own career.

On October 28, 2021, Dipika and Karthik were blessed with twin babies. The beautiful sports couple took to Instagram with adorable photos of their twin baby boys. In the pictures, we could see Dinesh and Dipika, holding their boys in their arms. Alongside it, the doting couple had announced the name of their twins in a heartfelt caption, which read, "And just like that, 3 became 5. Dinesh and I are very humbled to have been blessed with two beautiful baby boys, Kabir Pallikal Karthik & Zian Pallikal Karthik, and we could not be happier."