MIAMI -- One of the newest words in the tennis dictionary is "Fedal," a shorthand reference to the rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
It has become more than a cute bit of word play. It accurately represents the way these two spectacular tennis players, so fundamentally different in almost every way, have become entwined in history and fused at the hip in their pursuit of greatness.
Fedal. Think of the men as the parallel rails of a railroad track. Theoretically, they should never meet. But as you look down the length of their careers they merge on the horizon into one. Now they're at the Miami Masters, where each of them took another step toward the 37th meeting of their rivalry.
Nadal ripped through a good workout against one of the many players who, inspired by the nature of Federer's recent successes, is doing a lot of attacking, Nicolas Mahut. Nadal played well when it most mattered, knocking out the Frenchman 6-4, 7-6 (4). Federer was put through his paces by Nadal's Spanish compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut but won a pair of tiebreakers, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
"It's been a good start for both of us," Nadal said of 2017 in general. "It's positive that we can stay around and be very competitive every week."
Career-wise, these locomotives might be closer to the terminus than the point of departure. But they still have ambitions. Ironically -- almost hilariously -- both men have had less trouble winning Grand Slam titles than this tournament. Fedal XXXVII in Miami would be one for the record books: a decade between Masters titles at the same venue for Federer, a breakthrough first win in Miami for Nadal.
Who said there's nothing new under the sun when it comes to these guys?
Reflecting the other day on the first of the four finals he has lost here, Nadal said, "Probably I should win the first one." That was in 2005, when he was a stripling of 18 who had yet to play a Masters 1000 final and had a grand total of six singles wins at Grand Slam events. He lost the match after winning the first two sets to an opponent who didn't just meet him for a quick cup of coffee, Roger Federer.
Credit the Swiss wizard for waking the Mallorcan beast: After that crushing defeat, Nadal won the next four Masters 1000 events he played as well his first French Open title. In Paris, Nadal's run included a semifinal win over Federer. That was the moment when the individual rails met to form a single track.
Nadal's style is radically different from Federer's. It's counterintuitive but sharing the same style would just mute their other differences. The contrast binds them, like the yin and the yang.
Rapidly closing on 31, Nadal is almost a full five years younger than Federer. He isn't really of the same tennis generation, but he has forced the impression that he is because of -- in order -- his precocity, his production and his longevity.
Nadal posted his 1,000th singles win earlier this week and called it a "good number." He's particularly proud of what it says about his longevity, partly because it flies in the face of some early critics.
"During a lot of years, I heard that I going to have a short career," Nadal said, "so it's important."
But Nadal hasn't had quite as easy a time of it as Federer when it comes to injuries. Nadal has missed eight Grand Slam events (and had to withdraw during another) over the course of his career. It's a significant number in the context of the Grand Slam title tally, which Federer leads 18-14 despite trailing Nadal in their head-to-head rivalry 23-13.
Federer's career-long good health advanced the impression that he leads a charmed life. But after he damaged his knee in February 2016 and subsequently underwent minor knee surgery -- missing a Grand Slam for the first time since the fall of 1999 -- it landed him in the same territory as his lifelong rival in yet another critical way. Both men missed most of the second half of 2016, leading some to wonder if they were finished. Instead, they've re-emerged this year as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in tennis shorts.
They weren't finished but refreshed. Not over the hill but over the stress and drudgery of career-building. Both of them had been abused and perhaps even demoralized by Novak Djokovic, when the Serbian star was at his peak. But this year, Federer and Nadal have become a free radical on the tour, liberated by their concerns and circumstances from routine concerns like ranking position and title hunting.
"Unfortunately, I can't do it all," Federer said Monday. "I can't chase the Davis Cup and the Slams and play all the Masters 1000s. At some point something has to give, unfortunately. I wish I could do it all like when I was 24 years old."
Federer made a point of saying that the same is true for Nadal, which just illustrates the familiar nature of their relationship. But there is one significant difference in their situations, and it was magnified after Federer defeated Nadal at the Australian Open to win his 18th major title.
Nadal's problems predated his most recent injury. They trace back to the summer of 2014, when he started a descent into a mystifying slump. He's hopeful that, aided by good health, he's on the brink of reclaiming his savage A-game. But he sounded a note of caution in Miami on Sunday:
"It's very early," Nadal said. "I feel that I am playing well. I can talk about myself. It's obvious that Roger is playing great, but the year just started. Just let's see what happens here, and let's see what happens especially for me after this tournament."
You just know that Nadal is making a veiled reference to his beloved clay courts and thinking French Open. And when Federer said that he's going to have to skip some tournaments that he has played in the past, you know he's alluding to clay-court events and thinking Wimbledon.
Two rails, one set of tracks, merging on the horizon.