Stan Wawrinka subjected Andy Murray to a barrage of body blows as he broke down the Briton's formidable defences to reach the French Open final, twice coming from a set down to win a high-octane contest 6-7 (7-6) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.
The Swiss 2015 champion hit a staggering 87 winners as he avenged last year's semi-final defeat by the world No.1 and join Spaniard, Rafael Nadal in the final.
Murray absorbed everything Wawrinka threw at him for most of the four hour and 34 minute contest but after winning a tense fourth set, Wawrinka steamed ahead in the decider as the Scot's armour was finally pierced.
The third seed, at 32 the oldest man to reach the Roland Garros final since Niki Pilic finished runner-up in 1973, was long frustrated by Murray but never lost faith despite seeing his opponent rally back from a break down in the first and third sets.
"There are two ways of seeing things and I chose to be positive, knowing that I was dominating," said Wawrinka, who has won the three grand slam finals he has played.
Nadal demolished rising Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-4 6-0 with a daunting show of force in their semi-final.
The 31-year-old Spaniard, ready to reclaim his Roland Garros crown after a two- year hiatus, dispatched the sixth seed in little more than two hours and is on the verge of becoming the first player to win the same grand slam tournament 10 times.
Thiem, like fourth seed Nadal, had reached the semi-final without dropping a set and had trounced Serbian defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter- finals.
But after starting brightly in the early evening sunshine his challenge disappeared into the encroaching shadows on Court Philippe Chatrier, where Nadal has never lost a semi-final or final since his debut in 2005.
Nadal has dropped only 29 games to reach the final, surpassing his previous best of 35 in 2012 and only two more than Bjorn Borg's record set in 1978.
Third seed Wawrinka's earlier epic five-set battle against Andy Murray had delayed Nadal's appearance until nearly 6pm local time and there was a sense of "after the Lord Mayor's show" as the day's second semi-final began.
A break for Thiem in the opening game quickly concentrated minds, though any prospect of a tussle to match the drama of the day's first instalment did not last long as Nadal recovered with two breaks of his own to take the opening set.
Thiem, whose elegant single-handed backhand had little effect throughout the contest, had break points early in the second set but Nadal slammed the door shut.
The Spaniard, whose only defeat on the red dirt this year came against Thiem in Rome, then broke with a clubbing forehand and lost only three more points on serve as he wrapped up the second set.
Thiem's hopes of emulating compatriot Thomas Muster's French title in 1995, were over in a flash as Nadal raced through the third set in 28 one-sided minutes.
Reuters
