Dott's first quarter-final appearance of the season came at the Shanghai Masters after he defeated Yan Bingtao 5–2 and Shaun Murphy 5–3, but he lost 2–5 to Ding Junhui. He suffered a 1–6 first round loss to Craig Steadman at the International Championship, before whitewashing Robert Milkins 6–0 to face Neil Robertson in the fourth round of the 2014 UK Championship.&lt;ref name="2014/15"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; He went 5–0 up, only for Robertson to level at 5–5, before Dott won the decider to reach the quarter-finals of the event for the first time since 2006. Dott said that he had reverted to the way he played in 2010, with a more carefree approach to the game which he felt had helped his good form in the tournament. In the quarter-finals, he once again let his lead slip but this time couldn't recover as Stuart Bingham came back from 1–4 down to defeat him 6–5. At the inaugural World Grand Prix, Dott came through a pair of deciding frames against John Higgins and Liang Wenbo, before losing 1–4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals.