the Masters for the first time in his career. He faced O'Sullivan in a one sided match once again with Milkins losing 6–1. Milkins' season finished in disappointment as he lost in qualifying for the German Masters and China Open, the first round of the Welsh Open and second round of the World Open. His match against Michael Wasley in the final round of World Championship qualifying went to a re-spotted black in the deciding frame which Wasley potted to beat Milkins 10–9. He dropped out of the top 16 by the end of the season to finish it as the world number 20. 2014/2015 season Milkins began the season well once again by beating Liang Wenbo 5–3 and John Higgins 5–2 to play Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open and was defeated 5–2. He eliminated Barry Pinches 6–2, Shaun Murphy 6–1 and Xiao Guodong 6–4 to play in the quarter-finals of the International Championship. A high quality match with Marco Fu followed which Milkins edged 6–5. He said ahead of his match with Ricky Walden that he had to forget it was a semi-final and focus on his game in an attempt to reach his first ranking event final. However, it would be a fifth exit at the last four stage as Milkins was thrashed 9–2. In November, he reached the final of the minor-ranking Ruhr Open, but lost 4–0 against Murphy. Milkins did not drop a frame in seeing off Michael Leslie and Marcus Campbell at the UK Championship, but was then whitewashed 6–0 by Graeme Dott in the last 32. In the first round of the Masters he was beaten 6–4 by Robertson having been 4–3 ahead. Milkins won through to the quarter-finals of the Indian Open and lost 4–1 to Mark Williams. After he overcame Michael White 5–1 at the China Open, Milkins knew that he had to reach the final to enter the top 16 in the world rankings and avoid playing three qualifying matches for the World Championship. In his fourth ranking event quarter-final of the season, Milkins led Mark Selby on four occasions but each time he levelled and Selby won the deciding frame 71–0. Milkins did win three matches to qualify for the World Championship and lost 10–5 to John Higgins in the opening round. Milkins finished the season inside the top 16 for the first time in