Guillermo Coria disputes a call during his tie against Davide Sanguinetti in Perth on Sunday

Perth: Guillermo Coria exorcised a few ghosts on Sunday when he recorded his first victory in more than six months as Argentina made a winning start to the Hopman Cup with a 2-1 victory over Italy.

The 22-year-old eased to a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Davide Sanguinetti to level the round-robin tie at 1-1 after Francesca Schiavone had beaten Gisela Dulko 6-1 6-3 in the opening match of the mixed team event.

Coria and Dulko then teamed up to beat the Italian pair 7-5, 6-0 and put the fourth seeds in pole position in group A.

?I had to run everywhere today (in the singles) but I am very happy and it was a fun game,? said Coria, whose comments were translated by Sanguinetti. For Coria, runner-up at the French Open last year, his singles victory was his first since Wimbledon last June, where he lost in second round.

Shoulder surgery in August kept him off the tour for almost four months but having lost all three of his matches on his return in November at the Masters Cup in Houston, Coria looked more like his usual self on Sunday as he eased to victory against the 110th ranked Sanguinetti.

The Italian also had to deal with an ankle injury, which he picked up while stretching for a backhand in the second game of the match.

After taping his ankle at the next change of ends, Sanguinetti battled on and though he dropped the first set, he led 4-2 in the second before Coria recovered to clinch victory.

The win was especially sweet for Coria, who was due to participate in the 2002 tournament but was prevented from playing after he received a seven-month ban for returning a positive drugs test for nandrolone. (Reuters)