Roger Federer has spoken about the supremacy of World no. 1 Rafael Nadal on clay court and believes the Spaniard always has had an advantage over him when it comes to clay.

While 20-times Grand Slam Champion, Federer will be skipping the whole clay season for the second time in a row, Rafael Nadal will have lot of work to do as he will need to defend more than 4000 points, having won a series of clay tournaments last year.

The Spaniard has already reached the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he will take on the no.4 seed G. Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

On clay court matches, Federer has won just two matches against Nadal - once in 2007 and once in 2009. Both players have played some best competitive tennis all around in the other courts but the clay matches usually ended in one-sided affair with Nadal on the winning side.

While asking about the Nadal's supremacy on clay, Swiss master said “Clearly Rafa has always had an advantage over me on a clay court and the record confirms that. I tried many different things to change that head-to-head, changing a few things on my backhand, looking at different tactics, but he had the answers on clay.

We see our matches on other surfaces are quite close, but this is where he has been dominant and at this point in my career, I have to give myself the best chance of winning tournaments and that is why I missed the clay court season.’

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‘His movement is so impressive on clay and his game fits the surface perfectly

I feel like I can play well on clay, but it is physically demanding and Rafa has mastered that surface better than anyone.’

Notably Federer has only won the French Open once and that too without beating Nadal, who lost in the fourth round against Robin Sonderlings.