Murphy reached his first Masters final, but lost 6–10 against Robertson. Murphy then reached the semi-finals of the next two ranking tournaments, but lost 0–6 against Stephen Maguire at the German Masters, 2–6 against Ding Junhui at the Welsh Open. He then lost in the quarter-finals of the World Open 0–5 against Mark Selby. Murphy ended the season with two first round losses. He lost 2–5 against wild-card Lu Ning at the China Open and 8–10 against Jamie Jones at the World Snooker Championship.