Top seeds Italy beat Australia in Fed Cup first round

Flavia Pennetta celebrates after winning against Jarmila Groth in Hobart.

HOBART // Flavia Pennetta extended her Fed Cup winning streak to 10 matches with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Jarmila Groth on Sunday to give two-time defending champions Italy a winning 3-1 lead over Australia in a first-round World Group match.

Earlier Sunday, Francesca Schiavone outlasted Samantha Stosur in 7-6 (1) ,3-6, 7-5 in the first reverse singles in a rematch of last year's French Open final won by the Italian player.

Groth had scored a 6-7 (4) 6-3, 6-3 comeback win over Schiavone in her Cup debut for Australia on Saturday, while Stosur lost 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-4 to Pennetta.

Veteran Rennae Stubbs was to partner Anastasia Rodionova against Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani in a doubles match that will also be Stubbs' last before retiring after a 25-year pro career.

Groth had her service broken five times in losing in just 65 minutes.

Heading into her match with Stosur, Schiavone had spent a total of nine hours, 20 minutes on court in her three previous matches over two weeks, including a record-setting four-hour, 44-minute Australian Open win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Schiavone fought off 12 break points and broke Stosur's serve for the one and only time in the last game of the match to give Italy the early edge Sunday.

Stosur saved three match points in the 10th game of the deciding set and another with an ace in the 12th game before finally losing three points later. In the first-set tiebreaker, Stosur committed seven unforced errors to hand the set to Schiavone.

"It's obviously very disappointing to come here and lose two matches, especially when they're so tight like that," Stosur said.

Australia had won all five previous matches against the Europeans, but Italy has reached four finals in the past five years and won the Fed Cup in 2006, 2009 and 2010.

Australia was making its first appearance in the eight-nation World Group since 2004, while Italy is the top seed in 2011.