Kyle Edmund defeats Daniel Evans in Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters

Kyle Edmund won the battle of the Brits at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with a 7-5 6-1 win over Daniel Evans.

The pair are closely matched, with world number 44 Evans just one place above his compatriot, but it was the lower-ranked player who prevailed in an hour and 20 minutes on court thanks largely to his superior success rate in saving break points.

Edmund's challenge is now to get past 14-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, the nine-time tournament champion who has lost just four times at the event.

World number 18 Roberto Bautista Agut survived a scare against Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili, coming from a set down to win 1-6 6-3 7-5 in a little more than two hours.

Spain's Nicolas Almagro also had to recover from losing the first set to Slovakian Martin Klizan, eventually coming through 4-6 6-3 6-1.

Argentina's Diego Schwartzman was a 6-1 7-6 winner over Australia's Bernard Tomic but Germany's Alexander Zverev coasted past Italian wildcard Andreas Seppi 6-1 6-2 and Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas comfortably beat Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-0.