Ebdon began the season by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic and lost 4–5 to an in-form Stuart Bingham in the first round.&lt;ref name="2012/13"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; He then played in the Australian Goldfields Open, beating Michael Holt, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy all by 5–4 scorelines. The match against Ding caused a degree of controversy as Ebdon had taken an average of 32 seconds a shot in a nine frame encounter lasting almost 5 hours. In the semi-finals he defeated Marco Fu 6–2, despite his opponent having over a 90% pot success, 80% long pot success and 80% in his safety game success. He faced Barry Hawkins in the final and succumbed to a 3–9 defeat, admitting afterwards that he had struggled in every department of his game. Ebdon lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, but continued his good start to the season at the inaugural International Championship. He received a bye through the first round as Stephen Lee had been suspended due to match fixing allegations, and only conceded one frame in beating Stephen Maguire and Ricky Walden to advance to the semi-finals. There he was thrashed 1–9 by Judd Trump.