Top-seeded Paul Harsanyi of Potomac qualified for the main draw of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic yesterday when Danny Cantwell of Silver Spring retired three games into the third set of the final of the Legg Mason Wild Card Challenge at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center.

Harsanyi's 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 3-0 victory put him in the tournament, scheduled for July 18-26.

"I had cartilage surgery last year on my knees, which just started acting up at the end of the second set and the exhaustion set in," Cantwell said.

Cantwell and Harsanyi traded games in the first set before Cantwell persevered in a tiebreaker. Play was even again in the second until Harsanyi won three consecutive games to close it out. He controlled the tempo from that point forward.

"Danny was dictating the match throughout the first set, but I wanted to try and extend the match as long as I could," Harsanyi said.

Cantwell, who played collegiately at Maryland, won the Challenge in 1996 but lost last year in the semifinals. Harsanyi, a 23-year-old graduate of Churchill High and the University of North Carolina, was playing in his first Challenge.

Harsanyi says he will prepare for the Legg Mason with tournaments in Texas and Oklahoma. He is ranked No. 1,374 by the ATP Tour computer, but nonetheless said he hopes to become the first wild-card entrant to win a match in the Legg Mason.

More than that, though, Harsanyi said he would "not mind playing guys like Andre Agassi or Michael Chang at all."