Follow the bouncing ball without Federer

It is the day after the Federer Express failed to deliver in the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament here. Only 24 hours ago, Roger went over and out.

The sun came up on this Monday, people went to work and the male tennis players who have spent much of their recent lives in Federer’s shadow showed up at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden with new spring in their step. The young gunslingers had a chance now. The sheriff was gone.

In the world outside these gates, the general sports fan probably is not as enthusiastic. He sees his NBA as Kobe, his golf as Tiger and his tennis as Roger. When they are missing, so is his interest.

“Hey, Mabel. You know how I wanted to watch Federer set that record on TV Sunday. Well, how about going out to dinner?”

Sports runs on stars. The general fan knows a little about a lot of sports and the rises and falls in his interest coincide with the rises and falls of the names. It is always best to have a depth of stars. Kobe and Shaq were perfect. So were Magic and Larry, Arnie and Jack. Even golf has Tiger and Phil, although Phil’s part often gets lost behind a large tree.

Tennis? At the moment, it has Federer and Rafael Nadal, who beat on Federer for a while and then kind of went away. It is an almost-rivalry.

Tennis knows its rivalries. Where have you gone, Pete and Andre? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

The organizers of this event, who have gone through financial hell and back in recent years to keep it going and on a level that makes it one of the top six tournaments in the world, certainly weren’t high-fiving each other on this, the day after.

“Obviously, this is not exactly what we wanted,” says Ray Moore, president of PM Sports, the tournament’s operating group. He admits that Federer’s absence could hurt walk-up ticket sales, and feels bad that the special ceremony planned for Federer, had he won this Sunday’s final and set a tour win-streak record of 47 matches, is not needed.

But Moore also finds positives.

He says his event is the largest of its kind in California, while admitting that comparisons are difficult because there isn’t really anything else quite like this in length, scope and seating availability. He predicts that attendance, even without Federer, will surpass 300,000, for the first time.

The 2005 event drew 282,000, and last year, despite two days being totally washed out, drew 270,000. Saturday’s crowd here went over 20,000 (total tickets sold) for the first time, and that record was broken by about 500 Sunday.

Moore says he likes the opportunity created for other players.

“Somebody new can step to the plate now,” he says.

Donald Dell, who once owned part of this event, now runs his own tournament in Washington, D.C., and is as influential a figure in tennis as there is in this country, knows the territory.

“This will hurt international TV ratings,” he says. “That’s where the biggest damage is.”

He adds quickly that he told Charlie Pasarell, chairman of PM sports, that this opens up the tournament. “This gives a shot to somebody like James Blake,” Dell said before Blake lost Monday afternoon.

He also says that one defeat in one tournament -- even if it is Federer doing the losing -- won’t affect tennis. He says his sport is on a comeback trail with a 5% to 7% increase last year in equipment sales and an established clientele of 16-18 million people playing the game at least three times a month.

“Those are Department of Labor numbers, not mine,” Dell says.

As the day wears on and the sun beats down here, people lounge on the grass in the shade of trees, or line up at the frozen-lemonade stand. Alongside the practice courts, where fans can stand 10 feet away while Maria Sharapova hits balls and works on her screech, European players kick a soccer ball on a manicured lawn.

This is a paradise of sorts, a destination chosen months ago by ticket-buying fans who may like the scene and ambience as much as they do the tennis.

There is a buzz about Federer’s ouster, but nobody seems to be racing to the exits. On Court 3, Sunday’s conqueror of Federer is conquered himself. Guillermo Canas loses in straight sets to Carlos Moya, once No. 1, now No. 36.

The tennis public has already shrugged. Not so the general public.

Probably, that latter segment will be helped to its judgment on Federer’s loss and its impact by events in Bristol, Conn., home of ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” There, where our sports-news agenda is now set daily, a 27-year-old producer with 15 months on the job and a tube of pimple cream in his pocket will decide that Federer’s loss takes this tournament off the radar.

And so it will be.