Jimmy Van Alen

James Henry Van Alen II (September 19, 1902 – July 3, 1991) was an American tennis official and former player. Van Alen was a poet, musician, publisher, civic leader, and raconteur. He was best known for his influence of tennis, especially for the tiebreak and for being the founder and primary benefactor of the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino, the largest tennis museum in the world, which he gave to the United States Tennis Association in 1954, saving the national landmark from a proposed car park. Biography Van Alen was born on September 19, 1902, in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, to James Laurens Van Alen (1878–1927) and Margaret Louise Post (1876–1969). His paternal grandparents were James John Van Alen (1848–1923) and Emily Astor (1854–1881) of the Astor family.<ref>Dwight, Eleanor. Jimmy Van Alen and Tennis in the 20th Century'. New York: MT Train/Scala Books, 2010</ref> He graduated in 1924 from Christ's College, Cambridge and won his blue for Lawn Tennis. He was a member of the Hawks' Club in Cambridge where the main lounge is named the 'Jimmy Van Alen Room'. He was an avid tennis player and was a national singles and doubles champion in court tennis. He helped found the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1954 at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. One of his contributions to the game was the development of the Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System (VASSS) which, among other elements, advocated a sudden-death tie breaker to end prolonged sets and matches. Van Alen actively promoted his system and in 1970 the U.S Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to introduce, on an experimental basis, the tie-break. Initially it was a best-of-nine-points, sudden death tie-break which made it possible to have simultaneous match points for both players. Via a few intermediary steps this would evolve into the current best-of-twelve-point tie-break.