Joyce's fourth season on the tour got off to a bad start with a 5–2 defeat to Joe Jogia in the qualifying for the Shanghai Masters. He followed this up with victories over Andrew Norman, Michael Judge and Barry Hawkins to qualify for the Grand Prix. He was drawn against the defending champion John Higgins and was defeated 5–1. The remainder of the season up to the World Championship was uneventful with only 2 wins in 3 ranking tournaments. In qualifying for the World Championship, he recorded a 139 break (his highest so far in professional snooker) against Jimmy Robertson in the 3rd qualifying round. He won this match 10–9 and then defeated Michael Judge 10–8 to set up a meeting with Jamie Cope for a place at The Crucible. Cope was to prove too strong for Joyce as he ran away a 10–5 winner.