Ding Junhui and Judd Trump. Picture by Monique Limbos

THE GERMAN Masters Final stands beautifully poised at the halfway stage after Ding Junhui and Judd Trump shared the first eight frames in an entertaining first session in Berlin.

Ding, chasing his fourth major title of the season after winning the Shanghai Masters, Indian Open and International Championship, came back from 4-2 down to level the scores going into tonight’s final session (starting at 7pm UK time).

But Trump, playing in his first major final in what has proved a frustrating season for him so far, will be disappointed not to be ahead after throwing away a great chance of winning frame seven when the balls were at his mercy.

Built up as an exciting match, the final certainly lived up to its expectation as Trump made the perfect start with a ruthless break of 80 to take the opening frame.

The high-quality start continued as Ding responded with a break of 87 to level the scores at 1-1.

Trump though showed more glimpses of being back to his best as he had the better of the third frame before he went into the mid-session interval 3-1 up securing the fourth frame by potting the final yellow into the middle pocket.

Ding made the perfect response after the restart as a break of 76 reduced his deficit to 3-2 but Trump soon restored his two-frame advantage after playing a brilliant positional on the pink to get onto the last red.

The Bristol star looked like increasing his lead to 5-2 but unexpectedly missed a red with a red when leading 42-1 which led to Ding fighting back. Breaks of 51 and 19 pulled his deficit back to a single frame.

And Ding levelled the scores at 4-4 after a cracking long plant set up a frame-winning break of 81.

The final is a race to nine frames with the winner netting a cash prize of 80,000 Euros (£65,000).