Novak Djokovic 'the second-best clay court player of all time' believes Casper Ruud

Novak Djokovic will face Casper Ruud in the Quarter-Finals of the 2024 French Open in what will be a revenge mission for the latter as he aims to gain some semblance of revenge for his defeat to the 24-time Grand Slam champion last year in Paris and further his route towards the final.

Ruud saw off Taylor Fritz in four sets on Monday. He won 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the end to stop the American in his tracks and move through. Technically he already has some revenge for the final loss which he will likely keep in his psyche. That is his win against him at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters. He managed to turn the tables after a pretty dismal Head to Head record.

But it shows that he certainly has the keys in order to defeat him and it was a pretty rampant victory at that. Djokovic struggled again against Francisco Cerundolo having to come from 2 sets to one down again in a thriller in order to seal the win. This after he narrowly escaped against Lorenzo Musetti. It shows that he is still vulnerable. But he has often brought out his best tennis and emerged from the fire accordingly. So Ruud will be wary that he is facing a fired up Djokovic.

Albeit one where it is unknown exactly how he will play due to his lack of real form in the past few months. So either he could be in a rampant mode or struggle once again like he has done at times in the past few months.

“I’m playing the quarterfinal in a few days against Novak. I have nothing to lose. I’m gonna try to enjoy it. It’s gonna be another match against him. It’s always tough. No matter where you play him it’s one of the toughest challenges in our sport. We played obviously last year here in the final. I’m gonna try my best to get revenge," said Ruud.

But Ruud also singled Djokovic out for praise. He said that in his belief he is the second best clay court player of all time. “Yeah, well, you can definitely argue that he's the second-best clay court player of all time. I mean, obviously Borg has more titles here than him, but Novak was always close, he always pretty much reached the final and ended up losing to Rafa. And I lost to him last year in the final. I think that he reads the game, you know, unbelievably well. He knows how to use a dropshot well. Obviously he moves great. So it's tough to hit winners on him.

"You know, physically he's there. He's strong. He never breaks down in a way. You feel sometimes that he will, but he never does. I think he's shown that the last two matches playing over four hours and looking kind of down and out but coming back.

"I didn't see much of what happened today, but I heard that he was down and even down a break in the fourth and came back from there. So he rises to the challenge whenever he needs to (smiling).I mean, he has all the shots. I mean, he doesn't play as heavy maybe as Rafa and the extreme topspin, but he doesn't need to. He has other qualities that are almost just as good.”