Serena Learned Her Sister’s Killer Was Paroled Before Match

Just before the most lopsided defeat of her career, Serena Williams suffered a devastating off-court blow.

Williams revealed to Time, in an interview for a feature published Thursday, that she learned about 10 minutes before her match against Johanna Konta at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic that the man who killed her sister Yetunde Price had been paroled.

Williams lost 6-1, 6-0 to Konta in 52 minutes in that July 31 match.

Williams revealed to Time that she learned Robert E. Maxfield had been paroled three years short of his full sentence earlier in the year while checking Instagram on her phone in a players area before the match. Maxfield was convicted of fatally shooting Price, 31, a mother of three, in 2003.

Playing with that weighing on your mind couldn’t be easy. Even Serena is human.