Water Polo World League defending champions Serbia may be headed to Dubai as favourites to take the title again next week, but the Serbs will have to overcome current world champions Hungary, when competition gets under way on June 16 at the Hamdan Sports Complex.

Serbia have a stranglehold on the league, having won gold seven times since 2002, twice as Serbia and Montenegro and five times as an independent nation.

But Hungary has dominated world water polo at all other major international competitions, including the World Championships and the Olympics. 

Hungary’s spectacular record of achievements includes winning 10 World Championship medals, including three gold, and 15 Olympic medals, including nine gold.

However, Hungary finished the 2012 Olympics in a disappointing fifth place. 

The appointment of a new coach in January 2013, former Hungarian international Tibor Benedek, saw the team rebuild and bounce back to take gold at the 2013 World Championships with a win over Montenegro 8 -7. 

Hungary have won the league title twice before, in 2003 and 2004, and have finished second three times, including last year. 

The team made a fine start to their league title campaign, defeating Greece twice and eliminating 2012 Olympic gold medallist Croatia in their European group play-offs.  

They will now meet Australia, Canada and the USA in the group round, and the biggest threat they face is from Intercontinental  winners USA, who they will clash with on June 18.

Group A will see Serbia, Montenegro, Brazil and China battle for a place in the final.