Defending champions Ub from Serbia won their fourth consecutive FIBA 3x3 World Tour event at the start of the 2023 season ©fiba.basketball

Defending men's International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 3x3 World Tour champions Ub won a record-equalling fourth consecutive title at the start of the 2023 season with victory in an all-Serbian final against Liman in Macau.

Ub were without Olympic bronze medallist and five-time FIBA 3x3 World Cup winner Dejan Majstorović at the Wynn Palace casino hotel, but Vladimir Đorđević proved a more-than suitable replacement.

Đorđević, Nemanja Barać, two-time World Cup winner Strahinja Stojačić and the tournament's most valuable player Marko Branković helped Ub to follow their victories in Utsunomiya, Manila and Marseille at the start of the season.

Ub underlined their domination of the World Tour with a 21-16 victory against 2021 champions Liman in the final, Stojačić leading the way with an eight-point haul.

Stefan Kojic spearheaded Liman's hopes in the final with an 11-point contribution, but his team had to settle for silver on their first appearance at a Masters event on this year's World Tour.

Ub had earlier beaten Liman 22-16 on their way to topping Pool A, in which they started the tournament with a 17-13 victory against German outfit Düsseldorf.

They thrashed Toronto from Canada 21-5 in the quarter-finals and triumphed 21-14 over Chinese team Beijing in the semi-finals.

Liman only progressed to the quarter-finals thanks to a 21-19 overtime victory against Düsseldorf through Kojic's two-point shot, then edged past Riga - whose team included Latvian Olympic champions Agnis Čavars and Edgars Krūmiņš - 21-20 with a decisive one-point shot from Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Mihailo Vasić.

Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar were beaten 21-18 by Liman in the semi-finals.

That came after Serbian player Marko Dugosija produced a late two-point shot to help Ulaanbaatar stun Miami from the United States 20-19 in the quarter-finals.

Ulaanbaatar ranked fourth for the Macau stop just behind Beijing in third.

Ub continued their domination of the World Tour by moving on to 400 points, with Amsterdam from The Netherlands and Vienna from Austria, who both did not compete in Macau, second and third on 180 and 140 respectively.

Beijing also moved on to 140 following on from a third-place finish in Manila.

Edmonton in Canada is set to host the fifth of 17 scheduled stops on the FIBA 3x3 World Tour on July 28 and 29.

The 3x3 World Tour Final in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on December 8 and 9 is set to feature the top 12 teams on the season's standings.