Amanda Anisimova aired her frustrations with the WTA calendar following her surprise defeat in Dubai as the American tennis star claimed she felt "scary and vulnerable" on the court.
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On Saturday, the 23-year-old captured her maiden WTA 1000 title after beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 6-3 in the Doha final.
In total, the world No. 18 played a total of six matches at the Qatar Open last week.
But after winning Doha, there wasn't much time for Anisimova to rest or celebrate since her Dubai opener was already scheduled for Monday.
And she was far from her best game, which resulted in a surprise 2-6 3-6 defeat to world No. 53 McCartney Kessler.
Anisimova: Scary to play after such a quick turnaround
"Definitely a little scary to go and play after such a quick turnaround," the 23-year-old said.
"Not testing out the conditions and putting your body through that, it's like very vulnerable.
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"With the schedule they have on us, it's tough. You get fined. Then your ranking gets affected if you skip the big tournaments. We don't get much of a choice when it comes to that.
"Knowing that in my mind, I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to try to play and do the best that I can. Hopefully I can get more used to that.'"
In the presser, Anisimova also noted that not everything was negative about the entire situation as her not being prepared for Dubai was caused by her triumphant Doha run.
Meanwhile, the American tennis star will now probably take some time to rest before kicking off her preparations for the WTA 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
Despite an early Dubai loss, the world No. 18 will certainly enter the Sunshine Double confident and it would be a big thing for her if she would manage to make some noise in Indian Wells and Miami.
