Everything you need to know about the 2022 WSF World Doubles Championships

The WSF World Doubles Squash Championships will be held in Scotland for the first time, with Glasgow playing host from 5-9 April 2022. 

It’s the seventh edition of the tournament since the event was brought under the World Squash Federation (WSF) umbrella in 1997 and it will feature women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles categories, with players from 15 countries across the world competing.

The 2022 World Doubles was originally scheduled to take place last year but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the competition starting on Tuesday.

Who’s pulling on the green and gold?

Australia has a proud history at the WSF World Doubles, with 10 titles across six editions, and is defending champion in all three events. Australia will field an eight-strong team in Glasgow hoping to add more medals to its collection.

The 2022 Australian Open Doubles men’s champions Rex Hedrick and Rhys Dowling will partner again, while former world champion Ryan Cuskelly will join 2018 Commonwealth Games Men’s Doubles gold medallist Zac Alexander as the other Aussie men’s pairing.

In the women’s draw, Donna Lobban and Rachael Grinham will renew the partnership that saw them win bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with debutant Alex Haydon and 2019 World Doubles Championships bronze medalist Jess Turnbull also competing for Australia.

Lastly, two-time World Doubles mixed champion Grinham will join Cuskelly in the mixed event, while Lobban, who took home two gold medals at the last edition in 2019, and Alexander will combine as the other pairing.

What happened last time?

The last WSF World Doubles Championships were held in Gold Coast in 2019. Australia completed a hat-trick winning all three gold medals with Cuskelly and Ryan Pilley triumphing in the men’s category, Lobban and Christine Nunn winning the women’s and Lobban and Pilley also taking gold in the mixed. 

Australia added another five medals with silvers in the Women’s (Sarah Cardwell/Jessica Turnbull), Men’s (Zac Alexander/Rex Hedrick) and Mixed categories (Ethan Eyles/Christine Nunn) and two bronzes in the Women’s (Selena Shaikh/Taylor Flavell) and Mixed (Zac Alexander/Alex Haydon).

Who else will be there?

Glasgow will boost a stellar lineup including men’s world No.1 Paul Coll, who comes into the tournament off the back of a British Open title and will partner with women’s world No.5 Joelle King for New Zealand in the mixed doubles.

England will also field strong teams across all categories. In the women’s draw, world No.6 Sarah-Jane Perry will join two-time World Doubles silver medallist Alison Waters, while rising star Georgina Kennedy will team up with young talent Lucy Turmel, who broke into the world top-25 for the first time last year.

In the men’s doubles, former world No.1 James Willstrop will be joined by 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Declan James, while world No.27 Adrian Waller will take to the court alongside two-time Commonwealth Games doubles medallist Daryl Selby.

Still ranked in the top-40 on the PSA World Tour, Greg Lobban is one of the veterans of the Scottish game and in front of his home crowd, he will be hoping to find the form which led him and teammate Alan Clyne to triumph in the 2016 men’s doubles.

India will also try to play the experience card, as the 2018 Commonwealth Games double silver medalist Dipika Pallikal makes a comeback after three years away from the circuit. Dipika will look for some of the same old magic, renewing her successful partnerships with Gold Coast 2018 teammates Joshna Chinappa (women’s doubles) and Saurav Ghosal (mixed).

When does competition start?

Pool matches will start on Tuesday 5 April at 11am local time (8pm AEST), with all finals played on the last day, Sunday 9 April 2022.

The first Aussie pairing to have a match will be Haydon and Turnbull when they face no.4 seed Rachel Arnold and Sivasangari Subramaniam from Malaysia in the women's doubles. The duo have also been placed in Group A alongside no.1 seeds Joelle King and Amanda Landers Murphy, who'll they face later on Day 1. 

Grinham and Lobban, who are in Group B, will also take to the court at the same time as they face Tsz-Wing Tong and Ho Hze-Lok of Hong Kong. The pairing will round out their opening day against no.3 seeds Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal of India.

The mixed doubles teams will then take to the court with Alexander/Lobban and Cyskelly/Grinham set to face Malaysia's Ivan Yuen/Rachael Arnold and Singapore's Aaron Liang/Au Yeong Wai Yhann, respectively.

Lastly, the men's doubles pairs of Dowling/Hedrick and Alexander/Cuskelly take on the Welsh duo Elliot Morris/Owain Taylor and Malaysia's Addeen Idrakie/Sai Hung Ong, respectively.

The full draw and results can be found here

Where can we watch it?

Catch all the action from the World Double Championship via the Olympic Channel as well as WSF YouTube and Facebook.