Australia tied with Spain

The first-round World Group II tie between Australia and Spain is locked at 1-1 after the opening singles rubbers on Saturday night at Memorial Drive in Adelaide.

Samantha Stosur drew first blood for the hosts when she defeated Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez in three sets 2-6 6-1 6-4.

But Anabel Medina Garrigues struck back for the visitors with a straight-sets 6-2 6-3 victory over Casey Dellacqua.

Stosur was broken twice in the first set by Sanchez to be blown away 6-2.

But the Australian broke back twice herself in the second to concede just the one game and send the match into a deciding third set.

And despite making almost double the amount of Sanchez's unforced errors (21-12) in the final set, she hit six more winners (21-15) and broke two more times as opposed to the Spaniard's one to seal the win in just over two hours.

Meanwhile, the news wasn't as good for Dellacqua who was broken a total of seven times by Garrigues while the Australian could only manage three of her own.

Garrigues also won 64 percent of points on her first serve as opposed to Dellacqua's 46 percent while the Australian made almost double the amount of the Spaniard's unforced errors for the match (36-20) to be beaten in 93 minutes.

The reverse singles will kick off the action on Sunday before the doubles rubber that will see Aussie duo Alicia Molik and Rennae Stubbs take on Spainish pair Nuria Llagostera-Vives and Carla Suarez-Navarro.