Using an armoury of delicate drop shots, Alize Cornet rode a tide of French support into the fourth round of the French Open on Saturday with a 6-2 6-1 win over Agnieszka Radwanska.

The Frenchwoman baffled the Polish ninth seed with a display that delighted the home crowd at Roland Garros.

“There are no words,” Cornet told the crowd. “It is fantastic to be able to play so well on centre court. There was no better scenario.

“Clay is not my favourite surface but I feel so well on this centre court. I did not let her dictate the points, stayed close to my baseline and tried to mix it up with drop shots. I saw it was working so I continued.”

From the start, Cornet’s forehand drop shot, so effective in beating 20th seed Barbora Strycova in the last round, was her prime weapon, and she gained the upper hand in early exchanges.

Cornet had reached the last 16 in Paris only once in 12 earlier attempts.

Having exchanged breaks early on, Cornet again eased ahead as Radwanska attempted to counter with power but errors began to creep in.

Radwanska had come from a set down to win her last match. She chased down a series of smashes from Cornet until the Frenchwoman fired one wide and long then used a drop shot of her own to break at the start of the second set.

But Cornet, 27, broke back and then kept the pressure up.

Coming into this match, world No.43 Cornet had won just one of their eight matches.

In other Saturday third-round action, Spanish 21st seed Carla Suarez Navarro also reached the last 16 with a 6-4 6-4 win over No.14 Elena Vesnina of Russia.

Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, seeded 28th, scraped through to the fourth round, beating little known Su-Wei Hsieh of Taipei 6-4 4-6 9-7.