Kunshan 2016 will be synonymous with Europe’s greatest moment at a team championships. It was there that Denmark achieved their long-sought dream – of becoming Thomas Cup winners.

While there were several contributors to that triumph, it is Hans-Kristian Vittinghus whose image is inextricably linked with the winning moment, for it was Vittinghus who saw the team through in the pivotal fifth match of the final against Indonesia’s Ihsan Maulana Mustofa.

It wasn’t just the final, though. All through Denmark’s campaign, Vittinghus had stepped up every time the team needed him in do-or-die situations: in the quarterfinals against Japan, with the tie poised at 2-all; in the semifinals against Malaysia, with Denmark 0-2 down. And yet again, in the final, with Denmark and Indonesia tied 2-all.

Ten years from that momentous occasion, Vittinghus – now men’s singles coach of Denmark — looks back:

This is the 10th year of Denmark’s Thomas Cup victory. You were in the thick of it all. What are your most striking memories from Kunshan?

I still have many, many good memories from that time. I was obviously playing the final match in the final, that was an unbelievable moment of my career. And the final few, 3, 4, 5 rallies in that match… actually, I still don’t — I kind of blacked out on the final one. I’ve said that in past interviews as well, but like, 3, 4, 5 points before I won, I kind of had the feeling that I’m going to win this one, and we’re going to be Thomas Cup champions for the first time. And I remember looking back to the players behind the court and just seeing everyone there going absolutely crazy. It was the most unreal feeling to be on court knowing, what’s going to happen in a minute or two. And being part of that, that was just an unbelievable experience.

I remember watching (coach) Kenneth yell at you, to stop looking at everybody else and focus on the job.

He said that to me at 16 or something like that. I think I was up 16-7, and then at 20-7 I turned back to him again and said, Can I celebrate now? I was certain that it cannot go wrong anymore, right? But he really didn’t want me to celebrate before it was 100 per cent certain. Fair enough. Now that I’m a coach, I can really relate to his feelings on the chair.

How has that moment changed your life? It’s a decade now – looking back, did it change you as a person?

I don’t know if you could say that it changed me as a person or it changed my life, but I would still say it’s a big part of what I think back of when I think of my career, and a big part of why I’m — “big part” is maybe stretching it — but it is a vital part of why I feel like my career was a great success.

I always had three dreams as a professional battle player. I wanted to win the Olympics, I wanted to win the All England, and I wanted to win the Thomas Cup. I didn’t really succeed on the first two, but I managed to win that Thomas Cup. And when I was a kid, I don’t think I knew what it took to win these things, to achieve these big milestones, but being able to actually achieve one of them is still huge for me. And talking to you now, I can still get like goosebumps, just thinking about it. So it’s memory and a moment that I’m sure I will take with me.

I still get asked about it a lot from Danish badminton fans, European badminton fans, because it’s a big moment not only in Danish badminton history, but European badminton history. So it makes me proud every time someone mentions it, and I’m happy to think back. I’m also happy to say that it’s not all about me, all the other guys have the same feelings. We are also going to have a 10 year anniversary this year where we are going to celebrate all the guys.

So that’s the one thing that I always want to really emphasise — that it’s not just a Hans-Kristian moment; it was a moment for the entire Danish badminton community and all the 10 guys on the team and all the staff around the team as well.

Having said that, perhaps it’s your image that’s most associated with Denmark winning the Thomas Cup. In a way it defined Denmark’s whole campaign, the cool-headedness required to win in those do-or-die situations. It’s that heroic fifth match thing, right?

It’s the nature of how Thomas and Uber Cup is billed up, for sure, and it’s one of the things I really like about it as well, because we have so many events where it’s the top guys that are focused on, because obviously, they win the All England, they win the World Championships or Olympics and so on. So Viktor Axelsen, you’ve seen him in numerous huge matches, right? And Lin Dan and so on. You don’t really remember them from the Thomas Cup. You remember them from all the other big events they won. So I think it’s quite nice that you have guys that are obviously still world class, but not the top dogs fighting it out for a huge title. And it’s still a World Championships, it’s just called Thomas Cup.

Coming into that fifth match, with the pressure and the emotions… what was that like?

I don’t think I’ve really been known for being extremely mentally stable in my career. I’ve also probably lost quite a bit more of the close matches than I than I won. for me, it was a huge monkey of my bag and proving to myself that I can actually perform under this kind of pressure and deliver my best.

I’ve played the six matches for Denmark where it’s been either 2-2 or we’ve been down 0-2, or 1-2. So I’ve played six matches where I knew it’s do-or-die, and I won all six. So that’s a record that I’m very proud of. Also it proves that even though I don’t always perform well when the pressure is on, I have proven to do it many times for the national team.