No studies have investigated the chronic effects of team sports on 24 h ambulatory blood pressure and have assessed the effects of a beach tennis intervention in cardiovascular profile and physical fitness. Based on that, the investigators designed this parallel randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of beach tennis training on 24 h ambulatory blood pressure and different physical fitness parameters in individuals with hypertension. The difference between the intervention arms in mean change from baseline in 24 h, daytime and nighttime systolic and diastolic ambulatory blood pressure at 12-weeks is the primary outcome; secondary outcomes are the difference between mean change in office blood pressure as well as cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and power. The investigators anticipate that 12 weeks of beach tennis training will reduce blood pressure when compared to a non-exercising control group. Additionally, our recreational beach tennis intervention will improve all physical fitness components in comparison to the baseline values.

This is a single-center, two-arms, parallel randomized controlled trial with concealed allocation, blinded measurers, with 12 weeks of follow-up analyzed using an intention-to-treat approach.

Participants will be randomly allocated to the beach tennis training intervention (BTT) or to the control group (Con), which will not be submitted to intervention and will be instructed not to engage in any kind of structured physical exercise training and to keep the life activities identified at baseline. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) will be applied before and after the intervention in order to assess the level of physical activity.

In BTT, supervised beach tennis sessions will be performed two times per week. Each session will be composed of an initial period of 10 min of warm up and technical exercises (i.e., serve, volley, forehand and backhand). After that, 3 games of 10-15 min each (weeks 1-4: 3 × 10 min; weeks 5-8: 3 × 12 min; and weeks 9-12: 3 × 15 min) with an interval of 2 min between each game will be played in pairs (i.e., 2 versus 2). In case of less than 4 participants are able to play at the same time, the games can also be played individually (i.e., 1 versus1). In Con, participants will be advised to not change their daily usual activities and to not participate in any structured physical exercise program during this period.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Office blood pressure between 130-179 and 80-110 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively;
• Non-engaged in structured exercise programs in the last 3 months before the beginning of this study;
• Able to perform the proposed exercises.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Underlying cardiovascular disease in the last 24 months such as acute myocardial infarction, angina, stroke or heart failure;
• Diseases that reduce life expectancy;
• Smokers;
• BMI >39.9 kg/m²;
• Diabetic proliferative retinopathy.