Bacsinszky dons souvenir mask in press after win

After dropping her first match in Zhuhai to wildcard Shuai Zhang, Timea Bacsinszky recovered to top Timea Babos, 6-4, 6-2. Feeling good about her win, the Swiss was up for clowning around during press. She donned the mask after being asked how she rebounded from her tough 6-1, 6-1 loss to Zhang on Monday.

"The fun answer, which is not the official one, will be that I got inspired by your masks," she said. "And so with painting I got zen. I figured my inner Feng Shui or whatever you call it. I started to realize that I have a lot of power inside, that I can do it today."

The world No. 18 explained that the souvenir was given to her by the calligraphy artist in the player's lounge. She was actually given two masks.

The Elite Trophy tournament pits 12 players in four round-robin groups. Zhang is assured a spot in the semifinals if she wins at least four games against Babos on Thursday.