Tie’s fated, sadly, and he knows he’s lost (9)
I believe the answer is:
defeatist
'he knows he's lost' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'tie's fated sadly' is the wordplay.
'sadly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ties'+'fated'='tiesfated'
'tiesfated' anagrammed gives 'DEFEATIST'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for defeatist that I've seen before include "He's always expecting to be beaten" , "One giving in too easily" , "Person who always expects to lose" , "Unnecessarily pessimistic" , "With this attitude, one is resigned to failure" .)