KEY POINTS:
The shoes are off, the rackets are gone and eight truckloads of sand have transformed Stanley St into a beach volleyball arena worthy of the $12,000 New Zealand Open.
2007 marks the event's seventh year at the ASB Tennis Centre as the finale to the New Zealand Beach
Volleyball Tour.
Tournament director Dean Wilson says the switch to Stanley St has been a roaring success for the Open, which was a "ho hum" event when it was held at Long Bay on Auckland's North Shore.
Since making the move to the inner city, the organisation of the event, including moving the sand, has become a less daunting task over time.
An Auckland age-group league team have spent the last 2 1/2 days bringing 100cu m of sand into the venue by wheelbarrow - the only feasible way to do it.
After four events in the past two weeks - at Matarangi, Wellington, Whakatane and Mt Maunganui - the Open concludes the whirlwind tour.
A New Zealand pair is yet to win the Open in either the men's or women's division, although world-ranked men Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead finished runners-up in each of the last two years.
After a funding boost from Sparc, Pitman and Lochhead can dedicate themselves to the sport fulltime and are ranked 36th in the world. The Kiwi double-act won the Matarangi and Wellington events before losing in the finals at Whakatane and Mt Maunganui to Estonians Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik.
The Estonians are formidable opponents, ranked ninth in the world after eight consecutive top-10 finishes to start the 2006 season - a streak Pitman and Lochhead put an end to in St Petersburg in July.
Three other international teams will also compete for the $1500 winner's cheque, with Americans David Fischer and Ed Ratledge likely to test the New Zealand and Estonian pairs for a final berth.
Switzerland's David Wenger also returns to New Zealand with playing partner Philip Gabathuler after a successful 2006 which saw them capture the World University Games crown.
At contrasting ends of the age spectrum, 35-year-old Craig Seuseu will once again compete at Stanley St, while teenage brothers Sam and Edwin O'Dea will make their debuts.
Seuseu has been a key figure in New Zealand beach volleyball since the mid-90s. Sam and Edwin, at just 16 and 17 respectively, are the 12th and lowest-seeded men but are widely recognised as rising stars in the game.
In the women's division, Silver Fern Anna Scarlett and her team-mate Susan Blundell are the number one seeds, but they will be tested by an evenly matched international contingent.
American pair Tracy Lindquist and Ashley Ivy won at Matarangi and Wellington and will be favoured for another title in Auckland, with Lindquist a former winner of the tournament in 2005.
Lindquist is ranked inside the top 10 on the American Volleyball Professionals Tour, and this is her third successive visit to New Zealand.
Filipino representatives Diane Pascua and Heidi Ilustre will be the main challengers to the Americans after winning the most recent events at Whakatane and Mt Maunganui.
Highly rated Australians Johannah Rohkamper and Natalie Frostick are also expected to push for a final berth.
Spectators may be surprised to find the players umpiring their peers.
In smaller beach volleyball tournaments such as the Open, the players perform their duties as referees in the early part of the competition, before non-playing referees take charge in the knockout stages.
The Open starts this morning, with finals on Sunday.
