Who remembers Roald Amundsen anyway, apart from Antarctic aficionados?

No one!

But Scott of the Antarctic, the magnificent loser? Everyone. The name rolls off the tongue, well over a century after his fine death.

Disappointment: Amanda Anisimova cries after losing the women’s singles final match.Credit: AP

No matter that in a race between Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott to be the first to the South Pole, Amundsen got there a whole month beforehand – in December 1911 – managed to get all of his men back alive, and actually put on weight because he was so well organised and ate his dogs. No matter that in contrast, Scott died, lost all his men, and was completely and utterly hopeless.

It was the way that he died that captured the public imagination.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying the American, Amanda Anisimova, who before our very eyes just lost the Wimbledon singles final to the Pole Iga Swiatek, 6-0, 6-0, might just be tennis’s answer to Scott of the Antarctic.

Iga Swiatek of Poland plays a backhand against Amanda Anisimova.Credit: Getty Images

On the court on Saturday (Sunday AEST), she was – and I don’t mean this unkindly – completely and utterly hopeless. Seeded 13th for the tournament, and in her first final of a major, she completely froze – yes, again just like Scott – and her entire game went to hell in a handbasket. Just one in three of her first serves went in, and even then, they were mostly returned with sauce by Swiatek who was in the form of her life.

The crowd, which boasted major royalty in the official box – Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and the Princess of Wales – sat mostly crestfallen as it unfolded. They had come for a contest, and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald