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 A humorist (American) or humourist ( British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business ...

. He was best known for his influence of tennis, especially for the

tiebreak In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...

and for being the founder and primary benefactor of the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...

at the

Newport Casino The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 180-200 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. Built in 1879–1881 by '' New York Herald'' publisher James Gordo ...

, the largest tennis museum in the world, which he gave to the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

in 1954, saving the national landmark from a proposed car park.

Biography

Van Alen was born on September 19, 1902, in Newport,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, 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 The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With ancestral roots in the Italian Alps region of Italy by way of Germany, the Astors settled ...

. He graduated in 1924 from Christ's College, Cambridge and won his

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

for

Lawn Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

. He was a member of the

Hawks' Club The Hawks' Club is a members-only social club for sportsmen at the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1872, the club represents the best sportsmen in the University of Cambridge. Membership is by election only, and the usual criterion is that th ...

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

in 1954 at the

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. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1965. He was a great fan of Clement C. Moore's famous poem ''A Visit from Saint Nicholas'' which is more commonly known as ''

Twas the Night Before Christmas ''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...

''. He purchased and restored the Clement C. Moore house on Catherine Street in Newport, RI and would make an annual public reading of the poem to children during the Christmas season. He died after falling off a terrace at his home and striking his head on July 3, 1991. He is buried with his wife at the Berkeley Memorial Cemetery at Saint Columba's Chapel in Middletown, Rhode Island.

Legacy

Two days after Van Alen’s death, on July 5, 1991, in a Wimbledon semifinal, Stefan Edberg lost to

Michael Stich Michael Detlef Stich (, ; born 18 October 1968) is a German former professional tennis player. He won the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1991, the men's doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in 1992, and was a singles r ...

6–4, 6–7 (5), 6–7 (5), 6–7 (2) without losing his serve once throughout the match. Later, after hearing of Van Alen's death, Edberg said: "If he hadn't lived, Michael and I might still be out there playing". In the first round of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, American John Isner and French qualifier Nicolas Mahut played the longest match in tennis history, measured both by time and number of games. Over the course of three days spanning 11 hours, 5 minutes of play, Isner outlasted Mahut, 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68, a staggering 183 games. The players combined to produce 2,198 combined strokes. Based on his strong views, Van Alen proposed a simplified scoring system whereby tennis games would be scored simply by 1, 2 and 3, instead of 15, 30 and 40. The player who first got 4 points in a game would be declared the winner. He also proposed to eliminate the rules for ending the match. In case of a tied game, he proposed a nine point tie breaker, with the player who first scored five points becoming the winner of the match. VASSS or the Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System is a kind of scoring system used in tennis that promoted a sudden death to a tie-breaker. This kind of scoring ensures that prolonged matches, which are due to players having a tie in points, will not happen. The VASSS was invented in 1965. His most famous innovation was the tie breaker, which was introduced in 1958 to speed up the game. It was part of a new scoring system based on table-tennis rules, and featured a limited number of points in each game and set.

Contributions

*President, Newport Casino 1952 *President/Founder of National Hall of Fame *Inventor of the first tie breaker *Inventor of VASSS (Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System) *National Court Tennis singles and doubles champion.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Alen, James 1902 births 1991 deaths Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge American male tennis players Jimmy International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Jimmy Jimmy Sportspeople from Newport, Rhode Island Jimmy