Tournament player to give up, did you say? (4)
I believe the answer is:
seed
'tournament player' is the definition.
'seed' can be an answer for 'player' (seed is a kind of player). I am not certain of the 'tournament' bit.
'give up did you say?' is the wordplay.
'give up' becomes 'cede' (synonyms).
'did you say?' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'cede' is a homophone of 'SEED'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for seed that I've seen before include "From which things grow" , "Germ; top player" , "Tennis player; germ" , "offspring" , "High-ranked player in a knock-out tournament" .)