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Nischal Spurling and Bella Payne emerged as 16-and-under singles champions as some of the nation's best young players rang in the New Year at the USTA Winter National Championships on the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

Boys Singles Champion Nischal Spurling
© Contributed Photo

Spurling, a five-star 11th-grader from Los Angeles who has committed to play for the University of Pennsylvania and was seeded fourth in the field of 128, won all seven of his matches in straight sets. The closest was a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 triumph in the final against No. 5 seed Gavin Goode, a blue chip freshman left-hander from Raleigh, North Carolina, who also didn't lose a set in his first six singles matches of the week.

Goode never dropped a set in six doubles matches, teaming with Yannik Alvarez of Cumming, Georgia, to defeat Evan Rigsby of Roswell, Georgia, and Rajat Shirur of Marietta, Georgia, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 for that championship.

After winning his first-ever USTA gold ball, Spurling said he thought he could have gotten into the 18s draw (his latest Universal Tennis Rating on TRN is 11.30), but "I wanted to win an L1. It's been one of my goals -- a gold ball -- as long as I can remember.

"I think I came in with the mindset of I could be winning the tournament. I'm impressed with myself that I was able to maintain that level for the whole tournament."