Contemptible chap in love with States (7)
I believe the answer is:
heinous
'contemptible' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'chap in love with states' is the wordplay.
'chap' becomes 'he'.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'states' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for the United States).
'he'+'in'+'o'+'us'='HEINOUS'
(Other definitions for heinous that I've seen before include "Shockingly wicked" , "Iniquitous" , "Shocking (offence)" , "Hateful" , "Atrocious" .)