One who attempts to play the ace (6)
I believe the answer is:
server
'ace' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'one who attempts to play' is the wordplay.
'one who attempts' becomes 'r' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'play' becomes 'serve' (serve is a kind of play).
'r' put after 'serve' is 'SERVER'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for server that I've seen before include "Meal attendant" , "Waiter, waitress" , "Description of tennis player setting ball in play" , "Network-controlling computer" , "Computer managing network resources" .)