By Jason Scog

VIRGINIA BEACH -- The very name seems to defy logic, an oxymoron on the order of ice fishing or water polo.

But the arrival of beach tennis here this weekend puts Virginia Beach at the vanguard of a game that only officially arrived in the United States last month, in Charleston, S.C.

Though beach tennis players will account for only a small portion of the competitors at this weekend's North American Sand Soccer Championships, the nation's newest summer sport could draw some of the most curious spectators.

After all, how do you play tennis in the sand?

For starters, there are no Pete Sampras serves or Venus Williams volleys. The game is more a hybrid of badminton and beach volleyball .

The playing area is the same as a standard beach volleyball court. The net is about 6 feet high, and the equipment is a traditional tennis racquet and ball that is not pressurized, making it a bit less lively.

Scoring is the same as tennis, but there's no deuce point. Matches last about 30 minutes. The winner is the first to take eight games, instead of the normal six.

Serves are overhand, smashes at the net are frequent, and the ball is dead as soon as it hits the ground, as in badminton. But the soft sand invites all sorts of diving and rolling that the hard-court variety discourages.

"That's the thing I love," said Erik Oberhammer, a 40-year-old tennis pro from Myrtle Beach , S.C. "When I'm playing beach tennis, I feel like I'm 19."

Oberhammer is so smitten with the sport, which he discovered just a few months ago, that he recently got married on a beach tennis court in Myrtle Beach . At the end of the ceremony, fellow players created an archway of racquets above the departing newlyweds.

He's making the eight-hour drive to Virginia Beach this weekend to play just one day of the two-day event.

"The game is just a blast," Oberhammer said. "I believe in the sport a whole lot and I want to help the sport grow."

Phil Whitesell, 34, and Chris Henderson, 33, both of Charleston, won last weekend's tournament in Myrtle Beach.

"It's a hacker's game," Whitesell said. "People who may not be very good tennis players can pick this game up very well."

Whitesell, a college tennis coach, played beach tennis once before entering the tournament.

His tennis career at Southern Cal and a brief stint on the pro tennis tour served him well. On the beach, he was immediately drawn to the action and the athleticism.

"It's got a little of everything," Whitesell said. "It's got your touch, it's got power, and talk about a great workout."

Tracing the precise lineage of beach tennis is tricky, but it has origins in South America, Holland and Italy . Marc Altheim, Beach Tennis USA's commissioner and founder, discovered the sport in 2003 while vacationing in Aruba. He was so fond of it, he brought the sport to the United States and founded a governing body, the National Beach Tennis Association.

The inaugural Beach Tennis USA tour kicked off in Charleston last month and is now making its way up the coast, culminating in a championship tournament in August in Long Beach, N.Y.

The beach tennis tournament is free and open to the public. There will be open play from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. Tournament play begins Sunday with noon registration and a 1 p.m. start.