Ruthless Rafa sends cameraman flying

Being a camera operator can be dangerous work as one man painfully found out during Rafael Nadal's Rogers Cup match in Montreal.

The Spaniard was warming up for his round of 16 clash against Denis Shapovalov when he started sprinting head-first towards the man behind the camera lense.

Nadal was inevitably going to step away in the opposite direction before he got too close, but the sudden movement caught the camera operator off guard.

He took a few hurried steps backwards as Nadal ran at him, but lost his footing and went toppling head over heels.

The cameraman managed to capture the whole hilarious incident on film, with his flailing legs taking prominence on screen.

The mishap didn't faze Nadal, who simply glanced curiously at the camera operator when he sprang back to his feet.

The Spaniard claimed the opening set 6-3 before Shapovalov forced a deciding set by taking the second, 6-4.

Nothing could separate the pair as they went into a third-set tie breaker, which Shapovalov won 7-4 to clinch his spot in the quarter-finals.