DIED. James Van Alen, 88, who changed tennis by inventing the tie breaker; after a fall from a terrace at his home; in Newport, R.I. In 1954 Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport. Four years later, he devised the tie breaker as part of a comprehensive new scoring system to speed up the game. He based his rules, which feature a limited number of points in each game and set, on those for table tennis.