The 2007–08 season was more of a struggle for Dott, who described his late-2007 form as "hopeless... nowhere near to playing a good enough standard". His season started promisingly, as he reached the semi-finals of the season-opening 2007 Shanghai Masters, where he defeated Michael Holt 5–4, tournament favourite Ding Junhui 5–1, and Stephen Lee 5–4, before losing his semi-final against Ryan Day 2–6, to close the gap on world number 1 John Higgins, who went out in the second round; however, Dott then won no further matches that season; a run of twelve consecutive defeats, including all five group matches in the 2007 Grand Prix, started from October 2007 onwards. In the 2007 UK Championship he was eliminated in the first round, 7–9, by unseeded Dave Harold, while in the Masters he lost 5–6 to eventual runner-up Stephen Lee for the third successive year. Another first-round elimination followed in the 2008 Malta Cup, this time to Mark Williams. In the 2008 Welsh Open he lost his opening match against Michael Judge 4–5. In frame 7, when leading 4–2, he missed the pack completely with his break-off after miscuing, and also failed to hit the bunch on his next shot after being snookered. Dott announced that he might miss the 2008 World Championship due to personal reasons, and his manager said he had been suffering from depression. However, he did eventually participate in the tournament, but was eliminated in the first round for the second year in a row, losing 7–10 to Joe Perry, dropping him to number 13 in the new world rankings, and finishing the season outside the top 32 in the one-year rankings.