ITF

28 Summer 2021 ITF World DEVELOPMENT Helicopter pilot, lead guitarist, aviation engineer. ITFWorld meets those at the top of Bruneian tennis and presents evidence for them having some of the game's most fascinating backstories GRIP There are not many tennis administrators who are also a military helicopter pilot, lead guitarist in a metal band and build race car engines, all after being taught to play the game by a musician with links to Australian pop duo Savage Garden. Meet Yusree Yusainey, the Secretary General of the Brunei Darussalam Tennis Association (BDTA), who together with President Zahiruddin Zahari, known as Didi, is responsible for overseeing and promoting tennis development within one of the world's smallest nations. The pair have lofty ambitions for a sport which they care deeply about and have hatched a plan to establish Brunei as a principal tennis-playing nation of Southeast Asia before turning their attentions towards flickering on the international stage. More about this later. For now, it is worth dwelling on the backstories of those charged with raising the bar within Bruneian tennis. After all, Yusree's day job – he and Didi operate at the BDTA on a voluntary basis – has seen him enjoy a storied military career during which he has piloted helicopters, mainly Messerschmitt- Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105s, in the Royal Brunei Air Force. He joined the military in 2000, having worked as a bank teller for HSBC immediately after leaving high school, and was posted to No. 2 squadron following the completion of his helicopter pilot training three years later. The 45-year-old has flown helicopters all over the world, experiencing "too many stories to mention", before qualifying as a flying instructor and teaching the next generation of pilots. He now coordinates all military air operations as part of the Ministry of Defence's Joint Force Headquarters, having ended his tour of duty with his squadron in 2017, although he maintains his flying currencies. For his part, Didi's career outside of tennis is hardly run of the mill either. He is an aviation engineer with responsibility for fixing aircraft and keeping them in the sky. While he remains a civilian, Didi, who completed his aircraft engineering apprenticeship with Aer Lingus in Dublin in the early 1990s, is affiliated to the military and acts as a consultant to the Brunei armed forces on technical aviation matters. It is safe to say that Didi and Yusree's routes to the top of their national tennis structure are not as conventional as most Presidents and Secretary Generals, and it was by no means a journey that was planned or foreseen. "Not even in my dreams did I ever think I would become President of a national tennis association," Didi tells ITFWorld, sentiments which Yusree agrees with. "To be honest, I never even thought I would be a member of the Brunei Darussalam Tennis Association, let alone be the General Secretary," he tells ITFWorld. The answer to how and why Didi and Yusree ended up leading the evolution of tennis in Brunei is rooted in 2016 when it came to their attention that the BDTA's ITF membership was suspended due to non-payment of fees. Main The BDTA rejoined ac ve membership of the ITF in March this year CHOPPER

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