 However he struggled for form in the subsequent events up until 2011 China Open, where he defeated Simon Bedford, Jack Lisowski, Dave Harold and Mark King to reach the final stages of a major ranking event for the first time, making four centuries in the progress.In the last 32 he led Ding Junhui 4–1 but eventually lost 4–5.Maflin then lost a decider to Xiao Guodong in the World Championship qualifying, a high quality match where each of the players made 2 centuries and multiple 50+ breaks.