 Murphy began the 2012 / 2013 season ranked number six. The first tournament for Murphy was the Wuxi Classic, where he lost in the first round 1 – 5 against Ken Doherty. Murphy's next tournament was the Six-red World Championship, where he finished first in Group E with four wins out of five matches and advanced to the knock-out stage. There he defeated James Wattana, Barry Hawkins, Dominic Dale and Judd Trump to reach the final, but lost 4 – 8 against Mark Davis. He then reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open, but lost 4 – 5 against Peter Ebdon. Murphy gone one better in the next two ranking tournaments, as he reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship, but lost 3 – 6 against John Higgins and 5 – 9 against Neil Robertson respectively. Murphy than reached the final of the 2012 UK Championship courtesy of two tight victories. The first against teenager Luca Brecel in the quarter-finals, after Brecel twice had the chance to pot the final pink and black to win the match, then against Ali Carter in which Murphy recovered from 4 – 8 down and 0 – 32 in points behind in the deciding frame to win 9 – 8. He was ultimately defeated by good friend Mark Selby 10 – 6 in the final. He also participated at the Players Tour Championship, with his best result coming at the third English event, where he reached the semi-finals, but lost 0 – 4 against Marco Fu. He finished number 29 on the Order of Merit, and couldn't qualify to the Finals.
