Dott shone in the 2006 UK Championship as well, reaching the semi-finals, where he lost 7–9 to Stephen Hendry (a player who Dott never managed to beat in a ranking tournament) after an earlier 7–5 lead. He briefly became the provisional world number one in the rankings system after overcoming Jamie Cope 9–5 to win the 2007 China Open, his second ranking tournament win. Prior to this, he disliked going to China, not helped by a disastrous match in 2002. However, going into the 2007 World Championship as defending champion, he suffered a shock 7–10 defeat in the first round to Ian McCulloch in the opening match of the tournament, which dented his prospects of remaining world number 1. Newly crowned world champion John Higgins overtook him. The loss against McCulloch also maintained the "Crucible curse", as Dott became the seventeenth consecutive first-time champion to lose his title the very next year.