2011/2012
Robertson's season started in a disappointing fashion as he lost 4-5 to Dominic Dale in the last 16 of his home tournament - the Australian Goldfields Open. However, his form soon improved and at the next world ranking event, the Shanghai Masters, he dismissed Liang Wenbo, Michael Holt and John Higgins, before losing 5-6 to Mark Williams in a tightly contested semi-final. His first silverware of the season came in Warsaw at the PTC Event 6, where he beat Ricky Walden 4-1 in the final. This success was quickly followed up by another PTC title in Event 8 where he again won by a 4-1 scoreline, this time against Judd Trump. Victory ensured that Robertson maintained his record of never having lost in a ranking event final. He would later finish third in the Order of Merit and therefore qualify for the 2012 PTC Finals. His fine form continued into the UK Championship in York, where he beat Tom Ford, Graeme Dott and Ding Junhui en route to his first semi-final in the event. He played Judd Trump and lost in an extremely tight encounter, 7-9, with there never being more than 2 frames between the players throughout the match.
Robertson won the 2012 Masters by defeating Shaun Murphy 10-6 in the final. He beat Mark Allen and Mark Williams in the opening two rounds, before facing Trump in the semi-finals for the second successive major tournament. He exacted revenge for his defeat in York a month earlier by winning 6-3 and said after the match that he had been spurred on by fans cheering when Trump fluked shots. Such was Robertson's feeling that he lacked support from the local crowd, he offered to buy a pint of beer for anyone attending his matches in an Australian hat or shirt, but only one person heeded this call in his semi final match against Mark Williams. In his first Masters final he opened up a 5-3 lead over Murphy in the first session and, although he lost the first frame upon the resumption of play, won four frames in a row to stand on the edge of the title. Despite a brief fightback from the Englishman, Robertson secured the frame he needed with a break of 70 to become the fourth man from outside the United Kingdom to win the event.
Robertson could not advance beyond the second round in any of his next three ranking events and then saw his run of televised finals without defeat finally come to an end with a 4–0 defeat to Stephen Lee in the PTC Finals. He lost in the quarter-finals of the China Open 3–5 to Peter Ebdon, before drawing 1997 champion Ken Doherty in the first round of the World Championship. Robertson won the match 10–4 and then beat qualifier David Gilbert 13–9 to set up a quarter-final clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan. Robertson was 5–3 ahead after the first session, but his opponent produced a match defining run of six frames in a row and went on to win 13–10. Robertson finished the season ranked world number 7.
Read more about this topic: Neil Robertson (snooker Player), Life and Career