Among the most pivotal moments in Serena Williams’ life is the murder of her half-sister Yetunde Price. Yetunde also served as the personal assistant to Serena and her sister Venus Williams before her untimely death in 2003.
Yetunde Price was born to Williams’ mother Oracene Price and Yusef Rasheed, and was the eldest of Oracene’s five daughters. On September 14, 2003, she was killed in a drive-by shooting in Compton when she was meeting with her boyfriend.
The ordeal took a big toll on the family, especially Serena Williams. Reliving the anguish in her book – Queen Of The Court: An Autobiography – the 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed that she slipped into a depression at the time, and had to see a therapist for the same.
In addition to her sister’s passing, Williams acknowledged that the pressure of the tennis court was also getting to her, with the main factor being her trying to please everyone in her life but herself.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but I was slipping into a depression. I started seeing a therapist – weekly, at first, then a couple of times a week. The more I talked, the more I started to realise that my gloomy funk had to do with making other people happy,” Serena Williams said (via Guardian).
“It came up because of Tunde. It came up because of my knee injury. It came up because of all those weeks at number one, and the pressures I felt to get back there. It was all these things, but the main ingredient was me trying to please everyone else,” she added.
“Tennis was about the last thing on my mind, it didn’t seem important” – Serena Williams on the state of her mind after her sister’s murder
Venus & Serena Williams On Compton Tennis Court – Source: Getty
Venus & Serena Williams On Compton Tennis Court – Source: Getty
In the autobiography, Serena Williams further revealed that her mental health worsened so much that tennis no longer mattered to her, and that her head was simply not in the game anymore for a while.
“Tennis was about the last thing on my mind. It didn’t seem important. I went through the motions of rehabbing and keeping in shape, but my heart wasn’t in it and my head wasn’t even close. My drive, my sense of mission and purpose, my desire to be the best in the world… all these things had fallen away without me fully realising it,” Serena Williams said.
Williams went 2004 without winning a single Slam, with her best run being a run to the final at Wimbledon. In 2005, however, the former World No. 1 returned to the winner’s podium, lifting the Australian Open trophy. However, she went the next seven Slams without winning before finally taking the 2007 Australian Open.