It stands as the longest final ever, and was, at the time, the latest to finish (John Higgins's victory over Mark Selby the following year now holds the record).

[8] 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.

Things did not improve in the early part of 2008–09, when a broken left arm sustained while playing football forced him to pull out of the 2008 Shanghai Masters[12] and 2008 Grand Prix.

Dott won the Berlin leg of the World Series of Snooker,[13] but withdrew from the Moscow event two days before it began, as his wife was preparing to give birth.

[15] He returned a year later with a strong campaign at the World Championship, beating Mark King and Ali Carter before losing to in-form Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.

Dott's best run of the season came at the World Open, where he beat Barry Hawkins and Marcus Campbell, before losing 1–5 to Stephen Lee in the quarter-finals.

[20] Dott lost 2–4 to Ben Woollaston in the final of Event 3 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship, after earlier having overcome Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and John Higgins.

[22][23] Dott played in the first ever professional snooker tournament in South America, the non-ranking Brazil Masters, and reached the final only to be whitewashed 0–5 by Shaun Murphy.

After the match, Dott criticised Ebdon's slow, deliberative style of play and called for a rule to limit the amount of time a player could spend over a shot.

[32] Dott became the only Scottish player to reach the second round, after John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Marcus Campbell, and Alan McManus all suffered first-round defeats.

During the second session, he complained about receiving static shocks when he touched the table, and the players took their mid-session interval a frame early while the carpet was sprayed with water to address the problem.

[36] More disappointing results followed, including a 2–4 loss to Ratchayothin Yotharuck in the last 128 of the 2013 Indian Open, but he recovered to reach the semi-finals of the International Championship, where he lost 7–9 to eventual tournament winner Ding Junhui.

[38] He advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Open and reeled off four consecutive frames to level his match against Shaun Murphy, but the Englishman fluked the final black in the decider to defeat him 5–4.

[42] In July 2014, Dott started coaching snooker professionally to help encourage and influence the rising number of younger players within his native Scotland.

[43] Dott's first quarter-final appearance of the season came at the Shanghai Masters after he defeated Yan Bingtao 5–2 and Shaun Murphy 5–3, but he lost 2–5 to Ding Junhui.

[49] At the inaugural World Grand Prix, Dott came through a pair of deciding frames against John Higgins and Liang Wenbo,[citation needed] before losing 1–4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals.

[50] Dott advanced to the third round of the International Championship courtesy of wins over Jamie Burnett and Peter Ebdon, but he was defeated 1–6 by Neil Robertson.

[51] At the German Masters, he knocked out Tian Pengfei 5–0, Barry Hawkins 5–3, and Stephen Maguire 5–1, to play in his first ranking event semi-final in over two years.

He had to wait until the 2017 Welsh Open in February to play in the third round of an event, after beating Ricky Walden and Adam Stefanów, but he lost 2–4 to Lee Walker.

[58] As a boy, he developed a strong relationship with Alex Lambie, a snooker club owner from Larkhall in Lanarkshire, who mentored Dott from the age of 12 and went on to manage his professional career.