Scotland, England & India To Contest World Doubles Finals

The three finals of the WSF World Doubles Squash Championships will be contested by England, India and hosts Scotland - with England eying up a hat trick of titles after they qualified for all three at the Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow.

Two players, India's Dipika Pallikal Karthik and England's Alison Waters - both of whom have won silver before - are both going for double doubles gold!

In the men's draw, Scotland's No.6 seeds Greg Lobban, who is celebrating his third world final, and Rory Stewart launched a dramatic fightback to beat England's No.2 seeds Daryl Selby and Adrian Waller 2/1. Having conceded the first game 11-7, Lobban and Stewart were able to disrupt the English pair's rhythm and took the second game by the same scoreline before pressing their advancing with an 11-5 win in the decisive third game.

Afterwards, Lobban said: "There's no better incentive than a world championship final and even though we didn't start our best, we knew we weren't going to go down without a fight. It's a special occasion in Glasgow, a home Games. To be in the World Championship final is a huge achievement and I'm really proud of how Rory stepped up today."

There was some measure of revenge for England, though. In a mammoth 93-minute-long match, top seeds Declan James and James Willstrop beat Scotland's No.5 seeds Alan Clyne and Douglas Kempsell 2/1 in the other men's semi-final. There was also some personal redemption for Waller as he and Alison Waters combined to beat Lobban and Lisa Aitken in the mixed doubles, with the English duo overturning three match balls before snatching an 11-10 win in the third.

"That was just a fight, wasn't it," Willstrop said afterwards. "I'm thrilled that we dug in. That was a real gutsy performance and it's great if you know you can do that going into a final and hopefully a Commonwealth Games. We were as tough as boots!"

In joining Waters and Waller in the mixed doubles final are India's Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal Karthik, after they downed Wales' Joel Makin and Tesni Evans in an entertaining bout, taking the first game 11-9 before finishing the match with an impressive 11-5 win.

Speaking after their match, Pallikal Karthik - who give birth to twins last October - said: "For us women, our bodies go through a lot, day in and day out, and I think it's important to believe in ourselves. What's really worked for me is I've had a lot of support from family and friends and that's why I'm here today, because a lot of people believed in me."

In the women's final, England's Sarah-Jane Perry and Alison Waters put down a comeback from a spirited Malaysian team of Rachel Arnold and Sivasangari Subramaniam to take a 2/1 win.

The English pair took a hard-fought first game 11-9, only for the Malaysians to strike back with an 11-6 win in the second. Perry and Waters recovered quickly, though, taking the third in relative comfort, with an 11-3 win sending them through to the final.

Afterwards Perry said: "I think every game this week has given us confidence in different ways. They really came back at us there but we regrouped and found some solid squash and worked together really well. We communicate well on court and I think that helps when we're trying to work things out. I think that's what doubles is a lot of the time, adapting and working things out!"

Perry and Waters' opponents in the final will be India's Joshna Chinappa and Pallikal Karthik, after the Indians' opponents in the semi-final, New Zealand's No.1 seeds Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy were forced to withdraw due to an injury suffered by King.

Reacting to the news, Chinappa said: "It's so unfortunate that we had to reach the finals in this way. I wish Joelle a very speedy recovery and hope that it's not too serious and that she'll be back on court soon."

In the first of the finals, Ghosal and Pallikal Karthik will play Waller and Waters at 12:30, with Pallikal Karthik and Waters both returning to action at 14:00 to contest the women's title. In the day's final match, James and Willstrop will play Lobban and Stewart at 14:45.