Serena Williams Learned Sister's Killer Was Paroled Just Before Worst Loss of Career

Serena Williams found out that the man convicted of killing her sister right before the most lipsided loss of her career.

On July 31, Serena Williams suffered the worst loss of her career when Johanna Konta defeated her 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour in her opening match of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.

After the match, Williams said, "I know I can play a zillion times better so that kind of helps out, too. I have so many things on my mind I don't have time to be shocked about a loss that clearly wasn't at my best right now."

In a recent interview with Sean Gregory of Time, Williams provided some additional context for that quote as she explained that right before the match she learned that the man convicted for the 2003 killing of her older sister Yetunde Price had been paroled from prison earlier this year.

Williams said she was checking Instagram in the players' area about 10 minutes prior to the match when she saw that Robert Edwards Maxfield had been set free.

"I couldn't shake it out of my mind," Williams told Gregory. "It was hard because all I think about is her kids and what they meant to mean. And how much I love them."

Price, 31, had three children who were 11, 9 and 5 at the time of her death.

Earlier this month, Williams posted on Twitter about the "funk" she's been in since reaching the Wimbledon final, and mentioned that, "Mostly, I felt like I was not a good mom."

At the end of August, Williams will have a shot to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 career major victories when she participates in the U.S. Open.