At the Riga Masters, Xiao beat Gareth Allen 4–0 and Jamie Jones and David Gilbert both 4–2 to reach his first ranking event quarter-final in two years. He lost 4–2 to Darren Morgan. Xiao defeated Michael Holt 4–1, Noppon Saengkham 4–0 and Neil Robertson 4–3 at the English Open, before being eliminated 4–3 by Chris Wakelin in the fourth round. During his second round match with Shaun Murphy at the Scottish Open, Xiao made a 132 break, the 100th century of his career and went on to win 4–1. He lost by a reversal of this scoreline to Mark Davis in the subsequent round. This was the first year that the Shoot-Out, the tournament where every match is settled by a 10-minute frame played under a shot clock, had its status upgraded to a ranking event. In his quarter-final match with David Gilbert, Xiao ran out of time when potting a yellow but the foul was not picked up by the referee. He won the match and reached the final of the event for the second time and lost by 67–19 points to Anthony McGill. Three comfortable victories saw Xiao qualify for the World Championship and he beat Ryan Day 10–4 in round one, before losing 13–6 to Mark Selby.