In January 2011, Hambüchen tore his Achilles tendon, which kept him out of competition at the 2011 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Berlin. He recovered in time for the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships where he once again contributed scores on 5 events in the team event final, and Germany finished 5th. He competed all 6 events in qualifications but did not advance to the all-around individual event final due to the rule that only 2 gymnasts from each country can advance to an individual event final, as Philipp Boy and Marcel Nguyen both qualified ahead of Hambüchen. He qualified to the horizontal bar individual event final where he placed 4th.