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 did not authorize the earliest publication of the poem in the Troy "Sentinel", he had close ties to Troy through the Protestant Episcopal Church that could explain how it got there. Harriet Butler of Troy, New York (daughter of the Rev. David Butler) who allegedly showed the poem to "Sentinel" editor Orville L. Holley, was a family friend of Moore's and possibly a distant relative. A letter to Moore from the publisher Norman Tuttle states, "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this