Failure to combine love and work? (8)
I believe the answer is:
omission
'failure' is the definition.
(omission is a kind of failure)
'love and work?' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'work?' becomes 'mission' (mission is a kind of work).
'o'+'mission'='OMISSION'
'to combine' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for omission that I've seen before include "Something lacking" , "Lack" , "Deficiency" , "Something left out or forgotten" , "Oversight, piece of work neglected" .)