Nadal has a 15-3 record against Wawrinka, but the third-seeded Swiss player won the only time they met in a Grand Slam final, at the 2014 Australian Open.
She emulated the darling of Roland Garros, Gustavo Kuerten, by making the French Open her first career title, the feat the Brazilian achieved in 1997 on the day Ostapenko was born.
With Halep serving to stay in the championship at 5-3 down, Ostapenko set up her first championship point with an angled backhand return and won the biggest match of her life with a backhand down the line - her 299th of the entire tournament.
"Of course", she said, "I didn't expect that when I came here".
Ostapenko wasn't down without a fight as her forehands and backhands continued to power through on the court of Court Philippe Chatrier.
In her first Grand Slam final, Ostapenko did not look the least bit cowed. It's just the way I play. When she'd miss, she would slap her thigh or crack her racket on the red clay or raise a palm as if to say, "What was up with that shot?"
She appeared headed for a runaway victory when up a set and 3-0 in the second, plus holding three break points for the chance to lead 4-0.
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Wawrinka pointed to his right temple, as he often does to celebrate success on key points, and was on his way to the final. In that one, Wawrinka denied then-No.1 ranked Novak Djokovic the much-sought title everyone expected he finally would win.
She overcame a pre-tournament ankle injury and recovered from a set and 5-1 down against Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals only to fall at the last. "She deserved to win, she played very well".
'I know Simona is a great player, ' she added. This will be tough, for sure but I think she will regroup and be a better player.
The 25-year-old Romanian, though, was optimistic that her own taste of grand-slam glory would come one day.
Fittingly she thumped a backhand victor past Halep to seal victory, before tossing her distinctive green headband into the crowd with a look of disbelief. Her first, also at Roland Garros, was in 2014 against Maria Sharapova.
"At some point I was like a spectator on court", said Halep. With the crowd firmly on her side, Halep was the first player to hold serve, going up 2-1 as cheers of "Simona, Simona" rolled through a packed stadium.
The errors crept back into her game and Halep responded for 4-4, but Ostapenko promptly broke to love to leave herself in sight of a deciding set. "It's an unbelievable thing". Halep, pushed onto the defensive by a powerful opponent whose default mode always seems to be all-out attack, then crucially saved another break point and was taken to deuce in each of the next two games before wrapping up an engrossing first set with a third break sealed by another sequence of unforced errors from Ostapenko.
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