The following year, he was eliminated 4–15 in the last 16 by Rex Williams, and in 1976, he lost 5–8 to Jackie Rea. Anderson reached the last 64 of the 1986 Grand Prix, where he lost 4–5 to Cliff Wilson having led Wilson 4-2, but his activities remained largely restricted to the Australian events, and he lost his place on the professional tour in 1992, aged 46 and with a world ranking of 147th.
Anderson turned professional in 1973, playing his first World Championship match against Perrie Mans of South Africa in 1974. Anderson held Mans to 1–1, but Mans pulled away to win 8–1. In the 1979 tournament, Anderson was defeated in qualifying by a young Steve Davis, by 9 frames to 1, but in the 1982 Australian Masters, the group stage being in one-frame shoot-out format, he managed to beat Ray Reardon 70–48 and incumbent World Champion Alex Higgins 70–50 before losing 115–119 over two frames to Davis in the semi-final.
