Zhan Jian, a qualifier playing in his first Worlds, eliminated Swede Karlsson 3-1 in the first of the main draw of the men's singles event.
It was a dramatic match. Zhan played very well at the start, opening a big lead of 19-11 in the first game. Then miraculously Karlsson came back to take the lead 20-19. Although Zhan finally won 22-20, his mental state was affected. In the second game Karlsson easily won 21-6. Then Zhan adjusted his mindset. The following 2 games were bery difficult, but he finally prevailed 21-19, 21-17.
After the match, Zhan said that he would make sure that his is mentally ready in the next rounds. This is his first Worlds, he is not experienced, and his level is not much higher than Karlsson's. Overall he performed well. Losing the huge lead in the first game, and letting that affect his second game, showed that he did not control his emotions very well.
The other 6 Chinese won in the first round. Among those eliminated are Hakansson (by Li Jing) and Legout (by a Brazilian player).
(Chung's notes: Zhan plays an unusual style, with pips on the forehand and inverted on the backhand. His style is similar to Teng Yi's, but the latter had pips on the backhand also. Zhan did very well in Zhengding, beating other younger players to get to Osaka. Interesting that in another report Karlsson said that he was the better player than Zhan, and here, the Chinese reporter implied that Zhan is the slightly better player. Zhan may have broken the record for matches won in a 2-day period. He won the qualifying round, his first singles, and all his mixed-doubles matches, in a span of 2 days. That's winning 7 matches in 2 days. Maybe Ko Lai Chak from Hong Kong has more, since he is in both MD and XD, beside MS. Ko is still in all those events as of May 1.)