SOELDEN, Austria — Austria's Kathrin Zettel won the season-opening World Cup giant slalom today while defending overall champion Lindsey Vonn was ninth and Olympic giant slalom champ Julia Mancuso was 17th.

Zettel was fastest in the second leg and finished with a combined time of 2 minutes, 22.99 seconds to beat first-run leader Tanja Poutiainen of Finland by 0.98 seconds.

Andrea Fischbacher was third, 1.48 seconds behind, and giant slalom champion Denise Karbon was fourth, trailing Zettel by 1.51.

This was Zettel's fourth World Cup victory, the first time since 2002 an Austrian won the traditional opening race on the Rettenbach course.

Nicole Hosp, a favorite for the overall title, was eighth after the opening run and skied off the course in the second leg. Chemmy Alcott equaled Zettel's second-run time to finish 10th.