The United States gained revenge for its Olympic final defeat by beating Australia 8-3 in the women's water polo World Cup in Perth on Thursday night.

The loss means Australia will face Canada in the tournament quarter-finals on Saturday, while the US progresses directly to the semifinals along with Russia.

Eight American players involved in the gold medal play-off in Sydney were involved for the US, and the experience told against the hosts.

Heather Petri's powerful shot put the Australians behind in under a minute but, after forcing US keeper Jacqueline Frank to make four saves, Naomi Castle finally beat her to level.

The parity remained, with Brenda Villa and Jo Fox trading goals.

Either side of the first quarter break, the US established a dominance it would not relinquish.

Margaret Dingeldein and Coralie Simmons put the USA 4-2 up and, despite Castle's second, the US applied pressure which the young Australian side could not contain.

Further goals from Petri, Villa, Heather Moody and Ericka Lorenz confirmed the US as group winners, and favourites for the title.

In earlier matches, without its coach, world champion Italy squandered the chance to advance straight to the semifinals after losing an 8-7 thriller against Canada.

The Technical Water Polo Committee had banned Pierluigi Formiconi from poolside for two matches after his outburst during Italy's victory against Russia on Wednesday.

So he was helpless as he saw Canadian captain Johanne Begin score the winner with just over a minute of the match remaining.

Formiconi had received a one-match ban after being ejected for kicking an advertising hoarding into the pool and a further one-match ban was imposed for coaching his team from the stands.

The loss meant pre-tournament favourites Italy and Hungary will meet in a titanic quarter-final on Saturday evening.

Greece was the first team to be consigned to the wooden spoon decider when it was beaten 7-5 by Russia.

The Greeks took an early 2-1 lead, but superior Russian finishing took its toll with Ekaterina Salimova, Svetlana Kuzina and Olga Turova all scoring twice.

Kazakhstan threatened to cause the upset of the tournament before second seed Hungary ran out 8-4 winners, confining the outsiders to the 7th-8th place play-off against Greece.

The teams were tied at 4-4 , but some devastating fast breaks from Agnes Valkay in the second half took the Hungarians safely through.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP