The defending champion was the record world champion Jansher Khan , who, however, did not want to travel to Malaysia due to a legal dispute with his Malaysian ex-wife. World champion was Rodney Eyles , who had lost to Khan in the final last year . This year he prevailed in the final against Peter Nicol with 15:11, 15:12 and 15:12. This made Eyles the third Australian after Geoff Hunt and Rodney Martin to win the World Championship in singles. In the semifinals he had prevailed against qualifier Peter Marshall with 3-1 sets, while Peter Nicol defeated Alex Gough, who was 14th in position, in three sets. The only participant from Germany, Austria or Switzerland was Simon Frenz , who lost to Peter Marshall in the qualification.
The field of participants consisted of 32 players, including seven places for qualifiers.