The top seeds found themselves in a battle against Lisa Aitken and Doug Kempsell, with the Scottish pair taking the opening game of the match 11-7 at the National Squash Centre.

New Zealand’s King and Coll battled back to win the second 11-5 but were edged out 11-9 in the deciding game of their first Group A match.

"We just wanted to be solid and not give anything away at the end," said Kempsell.

"Lisa said she’d be happy to play 500 shot rallies, but while serving out isn’t the way you’d like to win a match like that, we’ll take it."

The Scottish pair swiftly claimed their second win of the competition by overcoming Joel Makin and Deon Saffery of Wales 11-3, 11-3 to move to the top of the early standings.

Coll and King bounced back in their next tie as they beat Christo Potgieter and Milnay Louw of South Africa 11-6, 11-7 as they look to defend their title.

King has already progressed to knock-out stage of the women’s doubles competition by winning Pool A with Amanda Landers-Murphy.

The pair are also the defending champions.

Defending men's champions Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban of Scotland have stormed into the quarter-final stage of the event.

The pairing won their opening two Group A matches and finished with a flourish as they won their third match against Dylan Bennett and Piedro Schweertman of The Netherlands, 11-2, 11-5.

"They are very good," said Bennett after the loss.

"You can tell they play a lot together, they play the angles very well without giving you anything to work with - they're the world champions, after all."

Despite defeat, the Dutch pair were optimistic after they progressed to the quarter-finals with two wins from three matches.

All three finals will be played on August 5.

The event will provide useful warm-up for doubles pairs competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast next year.

English city Manchester will also host this year's Professional Squash Association men's and women's World Championships, between December 9 and 17.