IF Ian Thorpe's first two swims on his much talked about comeback at the FINA World Cup in Singapore gave cause for optimism his third well and truly didn't - not that he's worried about it though.

While well short of his best, the five-time Olympic champion finished his first comeback outing in the 100m medley at the short-course meet in the Far East on Friday in a respectable seventh.

However after two seemingly upbeat swims the 29-year-old failed to qualify for the final of the 100m butterfly - third place in his heat in 54.09 seconds only good enough for 11th overall.

But Thorpe, who quit swimming five years ago before returning in a bid to reach next year's Olympics, painted a pragmatic picture of his performances in Singapore.

"I came expecting to get absolutely hammered in races and I knew it was going to happen," said Thorpe - who has been open in expressing his doubts of returning to Olympic-medal winning form.

"Anyone who didn't think that was going to happen didn't have this in perspective. I have to have a kind of reality check of where I am as opposed to how I feel in training.

"I was quite annoyed with myself with my time and things like that but now I know what I need to do. Racing for me is tough, it is tough to get back into this mode.

"It is not like I've fallen back, I feel like I'm on track. It's just that in the scheme of things I would have liked to have swum better.

"But I also look at where I came in the race, what time I did and look at how I felt a few months ago - I would have taken this any day three months ago."

Thorpe will continue his comeback at the upcoming Beijing and Tokyo World Cups ahead of the Australian Olympic trials in March.