He beat Simon Bedford and Xiao Guodong both by deciding frames and received a bye through to the final qualifying round because Steve Davis withdrew.

[7] His other run to the last round was in World Championship qualifying, which saw him defeat Simon Bedford 10–6, Pinches and Jamie Jones both by 10–9 scorelines, before losing 4–10 to Marcus Campbell.

[9][10] In his opening match, Highfield defeated Barry Pinches 5–2 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China where narrowly lost 5–4 to Mark Williams in the first round.

[12] Highfield received automatic entry into both the Welsh Open and UK Championship as all 128 players on the snooker tour began these events in the first round, but he lost on both occasions.

[15] Highfield's first win at a ranking event of his career came at the UK Championship when he defeated Jamie Jones 6–3, before losing 6–4 to Mark Davis in the second round.

[15] Highfield advanced to the final qualifying round for the Shanghai Masters by beating Michael Wild 5–0, Robin Hull 5–2 and Ken Doherty 5–0, but he lost 5–2 to Martin Gould.

[19] He lost in the last 16 4–1 to Gould, but by finishing 65th on the Order of Merit he earned the final two-year tour card on offer to players outside of the top 64 in the world rankings.

[21] By eliminating Luca Brecel 4–2 and Sean Harvey and Ricky Walden both 4–3, Highfield reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time at the Paul Hunter Classic, where he lost the final two frames against Mark Davis to be beaten 4–3.