It has been just over a week since Ditlev Jaeger Holm was in the midst of all the euphoria at the BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2026 on home turf, but already the emotions have been on a rollercoaster.

The emotional high of his career-best performance was followed by a strange emptiness. Now he’s playing the qualifying rounds of the TOYOTA Thailand Open 2026 – in an atmosphere that’s very different from the team event of the Thomas Cup.

This readjusting is perhaps difficult for all players, but especially so for Holm, who, relatively unknown outside Denmark before the Thomas Cup, was suddenly pushed into the limelight. With Denmark’s top men’s singles players Viktor Axelsen and Rasmus Gemke recently retired or injured, Denmark needed someone to step up in third singles – and this they found with the world No.63.

Having helped Denmark beat Korea and Sweden, Holm very nearly helped his team knock out Chinese Taipei, saving three match points and holding five of his own against Chi Yu Jen before succumbing. The electric atmosphere which he was part of is now but a memory.

“It was an amazing, amazing experience,” says Holm. “It was great, the crowd was amazing. The team was amazing. I haven’t tried many team events like that before. So it was crazy.

“The week after the Thomas Cup was so empty. You know, I looked forward to the Thomas Cup on home soil for so many weeks. You train specifically for the Thomas Cup. You think about which opponents you play, and all of a sudden it’s gone. It’s empty. And I guess I had to pick myself up to be ready for here during the week itself.”

He had to start in qualifying, in only his second tournament in Asia. Everything was different – the atmosphere, the heat, the solitude of the individual tournament compared to the team championships.

“With the Thomas Cup it was amazing, on home soil, the crowd was with me. The whole team was with me. In qualification, it’s everyone versus everyone. You are all alone in there. So it’s very different. But still, it’s a Super 500, so it’s very easy to motivate myself for it.”

Holm did qualify to the main draw, beating Utchan Ruaysap in a close third game before edging Kantaphon Wangcharoen. The reward was a first round meeting with fourth seed Chou Tien Chen.

What difference had the Thomas Cup made to him?

“The confidence is very high,” he says. “I need to use the confidence from the Thomas Cup to build. I played very well at the Thomas Cup. I’ve played well today, so I need to take that to tomorrow and then believe I can do something against Chou.

“Confidence plays a big part. If you lose confidence in a hall like this, with the drift and the hall, the heat, it’s just going to kill you. You have to play with confidence. You have to not be scared. So I think a large part of it is confidence.”

Holm had some trouble closing out his match against Wangcharoen, with the Thai saving five match points.

“It was a lot of game points. I lost confidence, I got shaky. I found some confidence at the end, in the crucial points; my coach made sure I stayed focused and didn’t get too frustrated. Because when he (Wangcharoen) caught up, I already started thinking, oh no, there’s a third game coming.”

Is this a new Ditlev Jaeger Holm post the Thomas Cup?

Holm laughs.

“It’s too early to say that. I think I’m just a more confident player.”

→ Results (Day 1)

→ Order of play (Day 2)