Michael Phelps, riding the momentum of a relay victory, opened his individual World Championships campaign with the second-fastest time in the 200m freestyle heats.
Paul Biedermann of Germany beat the American, who won a record eight gold medals at last year's Beijing Olympics, but following his success in the relay at the weekend, Phelps said he was feeling good ahead of this evening's semi-final.
"I felt good coming off the relay. It felt fairly controlled for a morning swim. I noticed yesterday guys are swimming fast in the morning, you have to kind of step it up in the morning," said Phelps, while adding that he was satisfied to book his berth in the first of Monday night's semi-finals with a time of 1min 45.60sec.
Phelps is the world record-holder in the 200m free, setting the time of 1:42.96 in Beijing.
So Biedermann, who broke Australian legend Ian Thorpe's world record in winning the 400m free on Sunday, said he didn't expect the 200m free to come down to a duel between himself and Phelps.
"I don't think so," Biedermann said, even after he led the way into the semi-finals with a time of 1:45.30. "I don't think it will be a duel at all.
"He looked totally relaxed this morning. If you look at his time, he's in really great shape I think."
Blown away by the 22-year-old German's achievment, Phelps added: "I still can't believe the 400 free got broken. I thought that was the best record on the book.
"It was crazy to see that go, but people are swimming fast. You usually don't see that in a post-Olympic year, but it's good for the sport. It makes it more exciting."
Phelps also lent his support to the changes in swimsuit regulations the world swimming governing body Fina has proposed, which will mean all controversial non-textile swimsuits will be banned from next year and male competitors will be forced to return to wearing briefs.
"Swimming will actually become swimming again," Phelps said. "We're all going to have the same exact suit. It's not going be an issue. It's not going to be a question of what suit we're wearing, who's wearing what. We'll see what happens over the next few months. I'm excited to see what's going to happen for the future of the sport."
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