same against John Higgins, as this time it was the Scotsman who beat the Australian 5–2. At the end of the season, Robertson qualified for the 2005 World Championship, losing 7–10 to Stephen Hendry in the first round. In 2005–06, he continued to progress, moving up to the top 16 of the rankings. He reached his first semi-final at the 2005 Northern Ireland Trophy, where he led 4–1, but ended up losing 4–6 to Matthew Stevens, who went on to win the event. Robertson also made it to the quarter-finals of the 2005 UK Championship, where he lost 9–5 to ultimate tournament winner Ding Junhui, and the 2006 World Championship, in which he fought back from 8–12 down to level at 12–12 against eventual champion Graeme Dott, before losing the final frame by inadvertently potting the final pink which he needed on the table in his attempts to snooker Dott. Breakthrough: first ranking title Robertson made his breakthrough in the 2006–07 season. After finishing top of his group at the 2006 Grand Prix's round robin stage, losing only his opener match against Nigel Bond by 2–3, Robertson beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–1 in the quarter-finals. He went on to the semis, being only the fourth Australian ever to do so in a ranking event. He won 6–2 against Alan McManus to reach his first ranking final, where he faced a fellow first-time finalist, the unseeded Jamie Cope, whom he defeated 9–5 to win his first ever professional ranking tournament. The win earned him £60,000, the highest amount of money he earned in one event up till that point. Afterwards, he had early exits in both the 2006 UK Championship and the 2007 Masters, despite whitewashing Mark Williams 6–0 in the first round of the latter tournament, but he found his form again en route to the final of the 2007 Welsh Open. He defeated Stephen Hendry 5–3, making a break of 141 in the last frame, then recovered from 3–4 down to overcome Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–4 in the quarter-finals. After that he beat Steve Davis 6–3 in the semi-finals, and surprise finalist Andrew Higginson 9–8 in the final to take the title. Robertson led 6–2 after the first session, then dropped six frames in a row to come within one frame of defeat, but took the remaining three frames to win the match. At the season's end, he reached the second