Perth, Australia, 3 January 2013 | AAP

Australian teenager Ashleigh Barty claimed the biggest scalp of her fledgling career with a 6-0 6-3 demolition of 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone at the Hopman Cup on Thursday night.

Barty’s win, achieved in just 55 minutes, gave Australia an unassailable 2-0 lead over Italy after Bernard Tomic beat world No.23 Andreas Seppi 6-3 7-5 in the men’s singles rubber.

The Aussies were unable to make it a clean sweep however, with Italy winning an exciting mixed doubles rubber 2-6 6-4 [10-3] to complete the tie.

Eighth-seeded Australia will reach Saturday night’s final if Germany upset Serbia’s top-seeded pairing of Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic on Friday.

Barty was only playing at the mixed-teams tournament after Casey Dellacqua was forced to pull out with a foot injury.

The 16-year-old lost to Ivanovic in straight sets on Wednesday night, but came out with all guns blazing against world No.35 Schiavone, who looked a shadow of the player that beat Sam Stosur at the 2010 French Open final.

Barty said her triumph over Schiavone was an even better feeling than when she won the Wimbledon junior girls title in 2011.

“I think this win trumps everything. The feeling I have right now – the adrenaline is just pumping through my veins,” Barty said.

“I played unbelievable tonight and it was an incredible feeling out there. It has to be close to one of my best performances I’ve ever played.”

Schiavone committed 10 unforced errors in the first set, with two of her double faults handing Barty crucial breaks.

The 32-year-old veteran won the first two games of the second set.

But it was all Barty from that point on as the Queensland teenager broke Schiavone three more times to secure victory.

The win capped a dream few days for Barty, who has been handed a wildcard into the main draw at the Australian Open.