Nadal, 31, secured a place in his 22nd major final with a 6-3 6-4 6-0 thumping of Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Nadal, the No. 4 seed and nine-time French Open champion, won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
The symbols of the three places where he won Grand Slam titles - a kangaroo for the Australian Open, the Eiffel Tower for Roland Garros and the Statue of Liberty for the U.S. Open - are printed on the back of his shoes, above the words "Stan" on his left and "The Man" on his right.
Wawrinka won the tiebreaker with a forehand down the line, his 72nd victor of the match.
Wawrinka made the first move with a break for 5-3, seizing on a tentative approach and flashing a cross-court victor past the despairing lunge of Murray at the net. The same couldn't be said of 2016 finalist Murray, who also dealt with illness on the eve of the tournament and had struggled overall to back up his remarkable play the last seven months of 2016.
"I lost a little bit of speed on my serve which wasn't allowing me to dictate many points on my own serve", explained Murray as Wawrinka went into overdrive to record a 10th successive win on clay.
At 3-0 in the third to Wawrinka, things looked bleak for Murray, but he moved a little closer to the baseline while continuing to pull off some fantastic recovery shots.
The biggest key for Wawrinka will be trying to shorten the points, especially in the first few sets.
It was a rollercoaster of a match, with Murray second best for most of the first three sets but somehow emerging two sets to one in front.
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Now that he has job security, perhaps he can return to the form that made his play so spectacular his rookie campaign. Gostisbehere is part of a core group of young defenseman, including Ivan Provorov, Sam Morin, and Travis Sanheim.
The fourth set however is the one Murray will rue.
While Wawrinka finished with 10 more winners than unforced errors, Murray replied with 36 winners and 36 unforced errors. "But, you know, I turned my form around really, really well and ended up having a good tournament, all things considered".
"I started a little bit more nervous today but then I played well".
Top-ranked Andy Murray has won the opening set against third-seeded Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (6) in the French Open semifinals.
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Back to his best level after being forced out of last year's French Open by a wrist injury that hampered him the whole season, Nadal has been impressive over the past two weeks.
Murray's serve quickly came under pressure in the second set, saving a break point in a nine-minute game to hold for a 3-2 lead.
"I'm extremely confident about what I do, about how I feel, about all the hard work I have accomplished over the past days, weeks, months, years", said Wawrinka, victor of a career-best 10 consecutive matches. That year was incredible because I had so many problems with my knee, so I was not able to practice at all.
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