Rafael Nadal dealing with nasty blisters on his hand

Rafael Nadal has been battling some nasty blisters on his hand during the Australian Open. That sort of thing will happen when you’re playing best-of-five matches in temperatures that frequently exceed 100 degrees.

Nadal had to be bandaged during his fourth-round win over Kei Nishikori. He had a huge reddish/pink mark on the palm of his left hand that was treated and needed to be taped:

After the trainer got done bandaging him, Nadal’s left hand was mummified:

Nadal won that match in straight sets, though it did go to two tiebreakers. Nishikori was also bothered by blisters on his feet during the match and was treated for that.

The same hand issues persisted during Rafa’s quarterfinal match with Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday. The image at the top is how Nadal’s hand looked during his quarterfinal match. He similarly had to bandage the hand in order to get through the match.

Though the blisters look like they’re painful, Rafa said it’s not the pain but rather the unusual feeling the wraps produce that affects him.

“The feeling on the racket is a little bit more difficult,” Nadal said after his fourth-round match.