Painter's form dropped substantially in 2006. Despite opening strongly with a victory in the North West UK Open final and a second successive appearance in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Championship, his form began to stagnate around the middle of the year. Painter suffered first or early round defeats in most of the major tournaments and his ranking had dropped to 18 by the beginning of 2007. This was exacerbated by a defeat in the first round of that year's World Championship to his former practice partner Colin Osborne.