Poet in hot competition to secure love (6)
I believe the answer is:
horace
'poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'hot competition to secure love' is the wordplay.
'hot' becomes 'h'.
'competition' becomes 'race' (race is a kind of competition).
'to secure' is an insertion indicator.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'h'+'race'='hrace'
'hrace' placed around 'o' is 'HORACE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for horace that I've seen before include "Roman poet; -- Walpole" , "- Walpole, eighteenth century English author" , "Odist" , "Roman poet and satirist" , "Latin ode writer" .)