Fed stopped others from 7 W titles. Rafa from 8 RG titles. But there are still plenty of W champs around that Fed beat.
I'm not trying to deflate Rafa. Who is to say he would not beat tougher competition anyway.
I'm just stating facts. HC and grass have deeper fields. Even 2nd tier players play good on HC and grass. Even some clay courters play good on HC and grass.
Look how poorly guys, that are amazing on grass and HC, were on clay. Hewitt, Safin, Roddick, Agassi, Murray.
But that goes two way. That also inflates Rafa on HC and grass in contrast.
Beating Murray, Fed, Nole on grass is WAY more impressive than beating them on clay.
Where exactly is the deep field on grass?
Grass has one big event and Queens/Halle as secondary important events.
People that can play on grass are very few and far between: Fed, Nadal, Djoko, Andy(these four should be discounted because they are good on pretty much everything), Tsonga, Haas, Kohlschreiber is pretty decent as well, Feliciano if he weren't such a choker, Gasquet on a good day but it's still pretty slim pickings for a season that lasts, what, 1 month?
On clay you can pretty much put every european and south american guy and they are AT LEAST decent, if not good/great. If clay field is weak(with almost 3 months worth of events in the spring plus the southamerican stretch early in the year) then the grass field is abysmal.
Nadal can't be faulted for not beating RG champs in RG because his arrival basically meant the dawn of a new era. And since he was beating RG champs and finalists when he was 17-18 I don't think we can question his quality on the red stuff. It's not like the field on clay was full of legends in the early 00's and they suddenly all disappeared in 2005. It's just that there was no dominant force(with the exception of Kuerten for a short time) so a lot of guys were made to look good, since wins were dispersed.
I don't care who you face or what the surface is, if you have a 90% winning percentage(with 8 years in competing on clay at the highest level, not mickey mouse events) then you are pretty much legendary because many things can happen to bring the percentage down: injuries, bad days at the office, an opponent getting red hot, a bad matchup that keeps popping up giving you trouble etc.
I do agree with one thing though, Rafa's aura on clay(something that he started to really get circa 2007 with beating Fed 3 times in RG and winning 3 out of 3, plus the 81 streak) has actually made many players discouraged when it comes to their clay future. I mean, what's the point of trying to win a clay event if Nadal enters it as well?
Fed and Djoko(who are faaaaaaaar better than most guys out there, regardless of surface) have a combined 26-5 H2H versus Rafa on clay.
including at least 3 different former French Open champions (Gaudio, Ferreo, Moya)! so your argument is rather weak.
