Rafael Nadal is, without any doubt, the greatest player on clay. The Spanish legend, who retired in 2024, has a staggering record of 14 Roland Garros titles, as well as having the longest winning streak on clay (81 matches), the longest of the Open Era in any surface. As his dominance is clear, former World No. 2 and two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud has picked the ‘second best’ player ever.
Ahead of his 2023 Roland Garros final against Novak Djokovic, Ruud called the Serbian the “second-best court player of all time.” He told the press, via tennishead.net: “I mean, obviously [Bjorn] 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 [Nadal]. And I lost to him last year in the final.”
Ruud continued, “I think that he reads the game, you know, unbelievably well. He knows how to use a drop shot 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.”
Djokovic, who has also been called one of the greatest players on grass, has won three French Open titles, and he beat Nadal two times in Roland Garros (2015 French Open quarterfinals and 2021 French Open semifinals).
Apart from his wins in the French Open, he also beat Nadal in the Madrid Open and Rome Masters, as well as in the Paris Olympics. He is the player with the most wins over Nadal on clay, with eight, while the Spaniard defeated him 20 times on the surface. Meanwhile, according to Tennislive.com, he has a winning percentage of 81% on the surface.
Casper Ruud is one of the best clay-court players of the new generation
Apart from reaching two French Open finals, losing in 2022 against Nadal and in 2023 against Djokovic, he has secured 11 titles on clay in tournaments such as the Argentina Open, the Geneva Open and the Barcelona Open.
He also reached the 2022 US Open final, losing to Carlos Alcaraz, and became the World No. 2 in September of that year. In that sense, he became the highest-ranked Norwegian in history.