At the World Championship, Dott defeated Peter Ebdon 10–6 in a first-round match that lasted 7 hours 18 minutes, with an extra session added after the players failed to complete the match in the time allotted for the first two sessions. After the match, Dott criticised Ebdon's slow, deliberative style of play and called for a rule to limit the amount of time a player could spend over a shot. Dott became the only Scottish player to reach the second round, after John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Marcus Campbell, and Alan McManus all suffered first-round defeats. Facing Shaun Murphy in his second-round match, he trailed 2–6 after the first session. During the second session, he complained about receiving static shocks when he touched the table, and the players took their mid-session interval a frame early while the carpet was sprayed with water to address the problem. Dott managed to level the match at 8–8 after the second session, but went on to lose 11–13. His defeat meant that, for the first time since 1988, no Scottish player competed in the World Championship quarter-finals.