Ligety, who won three years running in the country between 2008 and 2010, continued his mastery of the Slovenian piste with a combined time of two minutes and 22.47 seconds.

The result put him 92 points behind Austria's Marcel Hirscher, in the giant slalom World Cup standings and the American could still overhaul the leader in next week's finals in Schladming, Austria.

Hirscher, who finished third, trailed Ligety by 2.03, while second place went to France's Alexis Pinturault, who finished 1.61 off the pace.

Hirscher remains just 55 points behind Beat Feuz in the race for the overall World Cup after the Swiss finished 35th in the morning run and failed to qualify for the second leg.

Defending overall champion Ivica Kostelic, who returned after three weeks out due to injury and a knee operation, finished in 25th place and is now 201 points behind Feuz in the standings.

Italian Florian Eisath, suffered a suspected broken arm, during the race when he was involved in a spectacular crash and was carried away from the course.

At the women's event in Sweden Maria Hoefl-Riesch clinched the women's alpine skiing World Cup slalom.

The German snatched victory over Veronika Zuzulovaby the narrowest of margins at Are, beating her Slovakian rival by just 00.01secs.

Canada's Marie-Michele Gagnon claimed her first-ever podium finish 00.11secs back in third.