BEIJING, Sept. 29 -- China's best male tennis player Bai Yan, ranked 464 in the world, was unable to work miracles as he did four years ago when he lost to newly crowned U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the China Open on Monday.

The only other two Chinese male players, Wang Chuhan and Gao Xin, both given wild cards as Bai was, already made exits in the qualifiers, reiterating the fact that Chinese men's players still have a long time to go even to crack into the top 100.

There might have been a slim hope that Bai is possbile to repeat his performance in 2010 Shanghai Masters where he stunned Czech Radek Stepanek in the first round at the beginning of Monday's match.

Bai, over 400 slots down in the world rankings from the ninth-placed Cilic, did make the Croatian sweat in the opening stage of the match on the main court in the National Tennis Stadium as the first set went game for game before Bai broke down under the continuing pressure of the powerful server in the seventh game.

"Before the match I watched his performance at the U.S. Open, so I know his form and performances. During the match I kept thinking what my next step would be. I was close to win points so many times," said Bai, 25.

Bai has been bothered with injuries the past few years and plays in lower level competition where he can never meet opponents as difficult as Cilic.

"Because of my injuries I have to start from low level competition. My opponents in the current level I play against are not able to impose as much pressure as Cilic. He can also make a lot of changes according to my return and leave me no time to handle them," said Bai, who missed the entire year of 2011 and now plays mostly in ATP Challenger Tour and Futures.

Bai became known in 2010 when he stunned Stepanek in the Shanghai Masters but he failed to shine as expected due to injuries.

Now Bai thought it was time for him to be back in the ATP Tour.

"Right now my ranking is about 400. By the end of this year I hope I can reach top 400, then next year top 100," he said.

Bai is now training without a coach.