50 Years of Influence, US Open: James Van Alen

WATCH—Stories of the Open Era - Tennis in Media:

In the five decades since the first US Open, these are the players, innovators and newsmakers whose contributions have helped make it one of our nation’s essential sporting events

“It’s eerie what the tiebreakers do,” Arthur Ashe said at the 1970 US Open. “The crowd is absolutely silent.”

Pancho Gonzalez was more direct in his appraisal: “I feel like I’m getting a heart attack.”

Ashe and Gonzalez had an unlikely figure to blame for their anxiety: Van Alen, a native of ritzy Newport, RI, who would be remembered as tennis’ foremost radical. As an adult, Van Alen ran the seaside town’s men’s tournament. It was there that he found his blood pressure rising as sets, which had to be won by two games, dragged on and on.

Van Alen’s solution was a nine-point “extra game,” to be played at 6-6. For years, his quest appeared to be quixotic; before television, after all, it hardly mattered when a match ended. But by 1970, with millions of fans tuning in, it did matter.

US Open tournament director Bill Talbert liked the tiebreaker’s “definite cutoff,” and installed Van Alen’s brainchild.

“Players don’t buy tickets,” Talbert said when the pros complained.

The sport soon saw the wisdom in his words, and in Van Alen’s invention.