Hamilton came through a very tough draw at the German Masters as he beat Mark Williams 5–3, Mark Selby 5–2 and Barry Hawkins 5–4 to advance to the semi-finals whilst claiming he wasn't playing his best. He then defeated Stuart Bingham 6–4 to get to his third ranking event final and first in 15 years in a match that finished at 1am. Playing Ali Carter in the final, Hamilton fell 2–5 down early on, but went on to win seven of the last eight frames for a 9–6 victory. It sealed the long-awaited first ranking event title of his 26-year career as a professional, and at the age of 45, he also became the oldest winner of a ranking event since 46-year-old Doug Mountjoy in 1989. Hamilton moved from 66th to 38th in the rankings. He beat Bingham 5–1, before losing 5–2 to Ding Junhui at the Players Championship and failed to reach the World Championship as he was defeated 10–9 by Noppon Saengkham in the second qualifying round. From starting the season with no ranking points he finished it 25th in the world, 31 places ahead of the next newly qualified player, Yan Bingtao.