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Living just minutes from each other in suburban Atlanta, 17-year-olds Caroline Price and Whitney Kay had met many times throughout their junior tennis careers. Kay, the top seed last week at the USTA Girls' 18 Clay Court Championships staged at the Racquet Club of Memphis, had beaten the 13th seeded Price back in February at a Southern sectional designated.

But it wasn't revenge that was Price's primary motivation heading into Sunday morning's final. It was the opportunity to see her traveling coach Matt Walker fulfill his promise to shave his head if any of his students at the Racquet Club of the South captured a gold ball, a junior slam or a Pro Circuit event.

"It was a pretty big motivation, to shave his head if I won it," said Price, the daughter of former NBA All-Star Mark Price. "Someone brought a razor, so we're about to do that."

Price's 6-3, 6-3 victory over Kay also changed her mind about her game's effectiveness on clay. Saying she was "not a fan" of the surface prior to the final, the 5-foot-11 inch left-hander had already begun to reassess that verdict.

"Ends up that I'm pretty good on clay," said Price, who also won a gold ball in doubles on the surface in Virginia Beach in 2008. "I never thought I would be."