Tennis Toe

To the Editor.— For the past few years I have been impressed by the number of tennis players who complain of pain in one or more of their toes. The pain is associated with the appearance of hemorrhage beneath their toenails. It seems to me that the toe affected is that which extends furthest. In roughly 25% of normal people this is the second toe; in a similar percentage it is the hallux. In roughly half the population, both the first and second toes extend the same distance. The explanation I have always held for "tennis toe" is that in tennis one is frequently stopping abruptly and the forward motion of the body propels the toes into the box toe and tip of the sneakers. The hemorrhage is frequently vertically positioned into fine lines in much the same manner as splinter hemorrhages in subacute bacterial endocarditis. I wonder how