Chinese wildcard Zhang Ze’s fairytale run at the China Open came to an end on Friday when he suffered a straight-sets defeat to Germany’s Florian Mayer in the quarter-finals.

The 22-year-old world No.165 made history in the previous round, becoming the first Chinese man ever to beat a top 20 player when he beat France’s Richard Gasquet.

His defeat of the Frenchman, ranked 14th, also meant Zhang was the first men’s player from China to reach the quarter-final of an ATP event since Pan Bing made the semi-finals in Seoul in 1995.

But matching Pan’s 17-year-old mark proved a step too far for Zhang, with world No.29 Mayer winning 6-3 6-4.

The 188cm right-hander from Nanjing has enjoyed a rapid rise up the rankings this year.

Recently he became the highest ranked men’s player in Chinese tennis history, moving from 292nd at the start of the year to his current ranking of 165. Pan’s highest ranking was 176.