When Kim Simmons plays her first match at the Sonesta Beach Singles Classic, in the back of her mind will be the one tournament she let slip from her grasp since returning to Bermuda a year ago.

The two-year-old Sonesta tournament seems to be the ideal place for Bermuda's top women players to make their celebrated return following an extended absence from the local game.

Last year it was Simmons, fresh from seven years of university studies in Michigan. This year it'll be Donna Bradshaw after a self-imposed year-long exile in the United States following last year's US Open.

When Simmons competed at the Sonesta final last year she lost to Debbie Darrell, but since then has seized control of the women's game by winning three consecutive titles.

She's on a collision course to fill one of four spots on Bermuda's inaugural Federation Cup team early next year -- bolstered by an 8-1 record in the nine matches she's played since last year's Sonesta. Strengthening her cause is the fact that she's dropped only one set in those eight triumphs.

The stage is all but set for her to face Bradshaw in the Sonesta final, but Simmons will treat the Island's number one ranked player of 1994 no different than any other opponent.

"She's just a different type of player for me, it's just a matter of piecing together the correct strategy to win,'' said a confident Simmons yesterday.

Simmons beat Kelly Way Holland, Jans Rolls and Gill Butterfield to win her three titles and while she would no doubt welcome another title, the 30-year-old Pembroke resident has her sights set on the Federation Cup, the women's equivalent of Davis Cup, and other International Tennis Federation (ITF) sanctioned events.

"I think I'm pretty much on track for what I want to accomplish locally,'' she said. "I've sort of changed gears over the last couple of weeks because now that there's a national women's team and we are going to produce a Fed Cup team, my thinking now is how am I going to be competitive internationally.

"Being competitive locally is one thing, but to be honest our local level of play is not as high as it should be. I feel that as the leader of the pack, just like Monica Seles, if she is the one to beat then everybody has to improve in order to beat her. So I feel a little pressure now, I feel like it's up to me to raise my level of play so that all of women's tennis in Bermuda will have to be following behind me.'' One young woman doing that is Danielle Paynter, back from an ITF junior event where she played well enough to win a medal. Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) president David Lambert and women's development officer Suzette Edmead are discussing ways to allocate more funds so that more women can travel overseas and compete in ITF tournaments.

Simmons, a member of the BLTA executive herself as new national junior development officer, has noticed significant changes in the way the sport is being managed compared to when she left the Island in the late 1980s.

"There's a very strong network of people, my contemporaries, who are really working hard to make things happen in tennis,'' she said. "I've just never seen so much activity and so many possibilities. There's a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of positive thinking.'' While watching the US Open this week, Simmons saw how Steve Campbell, a Michigan player she was familiar with, had climbed the ranks of a Detroit junior programme to face Mats Wilander in a Grand Slam event.

"I would like to have my children or my nieces or nephews turn on the TV one day and watch the US Open and see a Bermudian play with the calibre of a Steve Campbell. I grew up in an Island that had never produced the talent to be able to compete in a Grand Slam tournament, but I think within my lifetime I will see one of our top players compete at Wimbledon or the French, US and Australian Opens.'' Simmons spent most of the summer tutoring juniors and adults, but a biking trip to the Grand Canyon was necessary "because tennis became a little too central in my life. But I'm back again and I think for every tennis player it's always good to come back with a fresh perspective and that's what's happened.'' Even though she ended 1994 with two quick titles it wasn't until the semi-finals of the Pomander Gate Open -- when she finally beat Darrell -- that she felt she was really comfortable on local courts again.

"That's because she was the first person I played that I lost to,'' said Simmons. "I think at that point it was a psychological battle and in tennis you're vulnerable at any moment. I think that once I got over that hump I really felt I was invincible.'' KIM SIMMONS -- competing at Sonesta, but her focus is on international competition.