It begins with love and proceeds to match (6)
I believe the answer is:
tennis
'it begins with love and proceeds to match' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'it' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ennis' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tennis that I've seen before include "event" , "Ball game with a net" , "Pete Sampras's game" , "Wimbledon sport" , "Sport Dwight Davis gave trophy for" .)