Trump met John Higgins in back to back Players Tour Championship finals, losing the first 2–4, but gained revenge in the second, the Bulgarian Open by whitewashing him 4–0. Trump reached the final of the Premier League having beating Neil Robertson in the semi-finals, but lost 2–7 to Stuart Bingham. In the defence of his 2011 UK Championship title, Trump played Mark Joyce in the first round. Despite leading 3–0 and 5–2, Trump lost the last four frames of the match to suffer a major shock exit against the world number 50. The disappointment was compounded when Mark Selby went on to win the title, reclaiming the top ranking in the process. Trump was defeated 1–6 by Graeme Dott at the Masters and 4–5 by Anthony Hamilton in the first round of the German Masters. He regained his form and the world number one ranking at the Welsh Open. He came back from 1–3 down to beat Dominic Dale 4–3 in the first round, after which he asserted that "players are changing their game to play slower against me. Dominic was too slow for himself and it caught him out towards the end". More comfortable victories ensued over Andrew Higginson and Pankaj Advani to set up a semi-final meeting with Stephen Maguire. Trump initially raced into a 2–0 lead only to lose five frames in succession to the rejuvenated Maguire. Trump pulled back two more frames and looked set to force a decider after a 50 break in the tenth frame, but Maguire ground out the frame and won the match 6–4.