The home nation were comfortably beaten 3-0 as Austria made a sublime start in Pool B.

Martin Legner cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Ivan Tratter in the first singles match.

Nico Langmann then secured the victory for the Austrians by taking the second singles rubber 6-2, 6-2 against Silviu Culea.

Legner and Langmann then joined forces to comfortably beat Tratter and Culea 6-0, 6-2 in the doubles match.

Austria are joined at the top of Pool B by Great Britain, who recorded a straightforward 3-0 win over China.

Pool C also began today with Poland and South Korea both collecting 2-1 wins over Thailand and Japan respectively.

The Netherlands, the top seeds in the women's competition, showed their class with an emphatic 3-0 win against Russia in Pool A.

World number one Jiske Griffioen is absent for the Dutch team at this event, but it appeared not to matter as Aniek van Koot put them 1-0 ahead with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Liudmila Bubnova.

Diede de Groot wrapped up the victory with a 6-0, 7-5 success against Viktoriia Lvova before de Groot combined with Michaela Spaanstra to overcome Lvova and Polina Shakirova 6-0, 6-0.

Japan are the tournament's second seeds, with their hopes led by world number 16 Manami Tanaka.

They recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Kenya.

Action on the Italian island is taking place across two venues, the Baia di Conte and the Alghero Tennis Club.