Jimmy Van Alen 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 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". 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
A Visit from St. Nicholas "breast" in "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow" is frequently bowdlerized to "crest"; the archaic "ere" in "But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight" is frequently replaced with "as". This change implies that Santa Claus made his exclamation during the moment that he disappeared from view, while the exclamation came before his disappearance in the original. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night" is frequently rendered with the traditional English locution "Merry Christmas". The poem has been set to music by composer Ken Darby (1909 – 1992), and by British child