Hendry began the 2011–12 season at the first event of the Players Tour Championship, and lost 3–4 against Kyren Wilson. As a result of this he was ranked number 17 after the event, the first time out of the top 16 since the &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%201987/1988"&gt;1987/1988&lt;/a&gt; season. However, he moved back into the top 16 after reaching the second round of the Australian Goldfields Open. In September he played Robert Milkins in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, but lost the match 1–5, subsequently losing his position inside the top 16 after the first cut off point and was ranked number 21. This meant that Hendry would not participate in the Masters for the first time in 23 years and that he would have to qualify to reach the main stages of all the ranking events in the snooker calendar.