Kyle Edmund gives Rafael Nadal a scare but Spaniard battles through

Nadal won 6-0 5-7 6-3 despite losing the second set

Rafael Nadal has won the Monte Carlo Masters nine times (Getty)

Kyle Edmund gave Rafael Nadal an unprecedented scare in the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters before the nine-time champion recovered.

Nadal had never lost more than four games in his opening match at the tournament before but had to withstand a barrage of Edmund forehands on his way to a 6-0 5-7 6-3 victory.

The British number three had never faced Nadal previously and he struggled to cope with the intensity of the Spaniard's play in the opening set.

Edmund landed his big weapon only sporadically and won just 11 points in a chastening 28 minutes.

But it took him just one game of the second set to get on the board and from there it was a different match.

Now feeling more comfortable on the court, Edmund went for more and more on his forehand and Nadal struggled to live with the pace.

It might have been different had the Spaniard capitalised after winning a long game to break the Edmund serve for 2-1.

But, having made hardly any unforced errors, Nadal suddenly played a poor game to allow Edmund back on level terms.

Nadal whistled through the first set without dropping a game (Getty)

The 22-year-old seized his chance by breaking Nadal again to lead 4-2, and did not let his head drop when the fourth seed battled back to 4-4.

Edmund kept his nose in front and then pounced when Nadal served to stay in the set for a second time.

He had his chances in the decider, too.

Nadal had to save a break point at 1-2 and, after the Spaniard moved ahead, Edmund played his most spectacular game of the match to make it 3-3.

But ultimately it was Nadal's greater consistency that prevailed after two hours and 18 minutes.