Burnett did start the new season strongly as he qualified for the first two ranking events, the Wuxi Classic and Australian Goldfields Open. In Wuxi he beat Neil Robertson 5–1 in the first round, before losing to Mark Davis 3–5.&lt;ref name="2012/13"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; In Australia Burnett defeated world number one Mark Selby 5–3, but then exited the tournament in the second round again following a 1–5 defeat to Marco Fu, with Burnett bemoaning a lack of consistency in his game. Despite this he then almost won his first professional title at the minor-ranking Gdynia Open, which formed part of the Players Tour Championship series, by reaching the final where he faced Neil Robertson. He trailed 0–3 in the best of seven frames match, but came back to level the match at 3–3. The decider lasted 52 minutes with Burnett missing a black off its spot with one red left to lose 3–4. However, his run to the final helped him to qualify for the Finals by finishing 12th on the PTC Order of Merit. In the Finals he faced Robertson once more and was beaten again, this time by a 2–4 scoreline. Burnett also qualified for the International Championship, but lost 3–6 to Stephen Maguire in the first round. From December 2012 until the end of the season Burnett could not win another match, culminating in a 6–10 loss to Yu Delu in the third round of World Championship Qualifying. He ended the season where he began it, ranked world number 39.