Anticipate page referring to fancied player, we hear (7)
I believe the answer is:
precede
'anticipate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'page referring to fancied player we hear' is the wordplay.
'page' becomes 'p'.
'referring to' becomes 're'.
'fancied player' becomes 'seed' (player expected to do well in a competition).
'we hear' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'seed' sounds like 'cede'.
'p'+'re'+'cede'='PRECEDE'
(Other definitions for precede that I've seen before include "Occur before" , "Come before (something)" , "Pave the way" , "Come or go before" , "Come/go before" .)