Short opener in sport concedes love for one whatsit (9)

I believe the answer is:

doohickey

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'whatsit' is the definition.
(I know that whatsit can be written as doohickey)

'short opener in sport' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'opener' becomes 'door' (I've seen this before).
'in sport' becomes 'hickey' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'door' with its last letter taken away is 'doo'.
'doo'+'hickey'='DOOHICKEY'

'concedes love for one' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for doohickey that I've seen is " American gizmo".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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