30 June 2011 | Tennis Queensland

While Queensland tennis players have been wowing crowds at Wimbledon, three Queensland umpires have been calling the calling the shots. Simon Cannavan, James Tucker and Shannon Walding, who all hold an ITF Bronze Badge, have been selected to be among 112 international umpires working at Wimbledon this year.

This is a huge honour for the dedicated umpiring trio who have worked at all the major grand slams and between them have umpired at the Beijing Olympics and the New Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Impressively James Tucker is the first Australian to be selected for a prestigious ITF/APT/WTA development group, which will groom him as a future Silver Badge candidate. Tucker is one of six umpires selected from over 200 aspiring Bronze Badge umpires considered for the development group. The selected few have shown commitment to officiating at home and abroad, have proved that they are always willing to learn and improve, and have demonstrated professionalism on and off court.

After Wimbledon Tucker and Walding will be calling the shots at the US Open, while Cannavan will be chair umpiring at challengers in Asia.