the next season was more successful, as pearce registered several last-64 finishes, reaching the last 32 at the 1997 british open and the last 16 at the 1996 grand prix. at the grand prix, he notably beat ronnie o'sullivan 5–1 in their last-32 match, but lost his next 0–5 to the canadian alain robidoux; in the british open, he defeated simon morris, jeff cundy, euan henderson and chris small but was again whitewashed, this time losing 0–5 to mark williams. he finished the season at a career-high ranking of 57th.