Although Gray was unable to qualify for the 2003 World Championship, his success at the 2003 Scottish Open (his only ranking tournament win) saw him break into the top 16 in the &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%202003/2004"&gt;2003/2004 world rankings&lt;/a&gt;, where he remained through &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%202005/2006"&gt;2005/2006&lt;/a&gt;. In the 2004 World Championship, he advanced to the quarter-finals, losing 13–9 to Graeme Dott. This performance helped him to no. 12 in the &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%202004/2005"&gt;2004/2005 world rankings&lt;/a&gt; (to date, his best-ever position).