Clenched hand with broken nail is one who has nearly won (8)
I believe the answer is:
finalist
'one who has nearly won' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'clenched hand with broken nail' is the wordplay.
'clenched hand' becomes 'fist' (I've seen this in another clue).
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'broken' is an anagram indicator.
'nail' is an anagram of 'inal'.
'fist' placed around 'inal' is 'FINALIST'.
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for finalist that I've seen before include "So far unbeaten competitor" , "One has reached the last round" , "Competitor who has beaten all except one" , "Participant in last match" , "Winner of semi-final" .)