Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have been proclaimed the second-best clay players of all time after Nadal by Casper Ruud who feels their greatness on it was overshadowed by Nadal.
Any great player on clay doesn't look as great on the surface when you compare him to Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard is called the king of clay for a very good reason, he's simply been incredibly dominant on the surface so far in his career. Speaking on the topic in the latest episode of the Ruud Talks podcast, the Norwegian said:
"Novak and Roger, they are probably the second-best ever claycourt players. It's just that it's never really talked about because Rafa has all these records, so it's tough."
Speaking further on it, Ruud talked about Nadal:
"You feel like maybe if you play Rafa on grass or whatever, Rafa has obviously won Wimbledon twice, so he is really good on grass, but you feel like, you can at least go out there and smack some winners and make him uncomfortable. On clay, you can't really do that because he has the time to set up his shots, he has the time to play good defence. If he's on it and he's playing well, there is really not much you can do, unless you are able to match his game, which very few people in the world can do on clay."