Slowly but surely, Kyle Edmund is honing his mind to match his muscle and yesterday he thought his way past Kevin Anderson, the US Open finalist and the 11th seed here, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The tall South African belted 35 aces past Edmund and he was a break up in the fifth set yet Britain’s No2 still found a way to win.

“Kevin, he just serves himself out of trouble so much,” Edmund said. “It’s very difficult to read it. So when you get a racket on the ball, it really has to go in the court.

“When I needed to, I got the ball in play as much as I could. I took chances and they paid off. Really calculated risks, I’d say. It was good. Especially in the fifth set, going down a break, then breaking him twice in a set to win it is pleasing.”

At the French Open last summer, Edmund was also caught in a marathon five-setter with Anderson but back then, he could not find his way out of trouble.

It was not the only time he saw matches slip away at the very death, so in the off-season he and his team worked on finding a positive mindset for the big Yorkshireman, a way to focus on his strengths when his back was to the wall.

“I lost a lot of close ones last year,” Edmund said. “I wanted to do better this year, especially against those more top guys. When I lost last May to Kevin in five, it’s a good measure. Eight months on that I’m beating him in five now.”

Edmund now plays Denis Istomin, the man who beat Novak Djokovic in the second round here last year.

Rafael Nadal raised the heart rates of his devoted female followers by reprising his sleeveless muscle shirt for his opening match against Victor Estrella Burgos – those biceps were rippling beautifully in the sunshine – and he lowered the blood pressure of the tournament organisers by pummelling the man from the Dominican Republic 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

Nadal’s ailing knees seemed to be in fine fettle, as did his game after two-and-a-half months away from the match courts.

“It’s a very important beginning for me,” Nadal said with a smile. “That’s a good start for me and that’s good news for me.”

Meanwhile, America’s top women were taking a pasting yesterday. As the day began, Venus Williams, last year’s finalist, was, in the absence of her sister, America’s best chance of getting a hand on the silverware. But the 37-year-old world No5 was bundled out of the tournament 6-3, 7-5 by Belinda Bencic from Switzerland.

Three years ago, Bencic was on her way up. She was 17, she had talent by the bucketful and she ended the year ranked No14 in the world. But then she needed surgery to repair a wrist injury last spring and missed five months of the season. Her ranking plummeted and she started to work her way back through the lower rungs of the tournament ladder.

Now unbeaten in 19 straight matches – including the three exhibition matches at the Hopman Cup – she had ousted Williams. And Williams was impressed.

“She played well,” Williams said. “I don’t think I played a bad match. She just played above and beyond. I just have to give her credit for that.”

Of the 10 questions Williams was asked, that was the longest answer. She was in no mood to talk.

Sloane Stephens was in a much chattier mood although it is hard to see why. She was sent on her way by Shuai Zhang 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 in a little under two hours. It was her eighth consecutive loss and left her without a win to her name since she won the US Open back in September.

CoCo Vandeweghe rounded off the miserable day for the US by taking a hiding from Timea Babos of Hungary. A semi-finalist last year, Vandeweghe came to Melbourne as the No10 seed and less than two hours later she was sent home again by the world No51.