World number two Novak Djokovic had no trouble in seeing off Austria's Jurgen Melzer to ease into the semi-finals of the China Open.
The Serbian was detained for just under an hour as he won 6-1 6-2 with a performance which was simply too strong for Melzer.
Next up for Djokovic is Germany's Florian Mayer, who beat home favourite Zhang Ze 6-3 6-4.
Mayer ended wildcard Zhang's fairytale run.
Zhang, ranked 165th in the world, made history in the last 16 when he became the first Chinese man ever to beat a top-20 player, taking out 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 number 29 Mayer winning comfortably to book a semi-final date with Djokovic.
The other last-four tie pits Feliciano Lopez against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Lopez edged a tight match against American Sam Querrey by breaking in the final game of the deciding set to complete a 4-6 6-4 6-4 triumph.
Tsonga had a far easier time, beating Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-2, but was still underwhelmed by his display.
"I'm a bit disappointed with my game on the baseline; I didn't play really good tennis," admitted Tsonga.
"Today it was not brilliant, but was solid enough to win it today. I served well and that's it."
