The Chinese snooker player Xiao Guodong took to social media after defeating his British opponent to say that the Brit followed him into his changing room, hurled abuse at him and asked him to step outside for a fight.

Professional snooker player Xiao Guodong, 32, beat British pro-Peter Lines, who is ranked 95th in the world, 4 frames to 3 in the Northern Ireland Open Qualifier last Friday (27th August).

Following the tightly contested match Xiao, who was Asian Under-21 Champion in 2007, claims Peter Lines, 51, came to his dressing room and proceeded to hurl abuse at him and even told him to step outside so they could fight.

The Chinese player, who is ranked 32nd in the world, said that: “Even though my English is not great I could understand what he said.”

He said that the only thing that stopped Peter from following through with his threat was the security team who stepped in before things escalated.

Xiao’s team filed a complaint with the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) who according to the Global Times are now investigating the incident.

Xiao posted a copy of the letter he sent to the WCBS on Weibo in which he claimed that Peter was very abusive towards him directly in front of the referee and even asked him to step outside for the scrap.

He added that this sort of behaviour could be very intimidating for a player who has come from a different country to compete in what is considered to be a ‘calm’ sport.

Xiao’s post on Weibo received widespread support from Chinese Netizens who were pleased to see he was standing up to his allegedly abusive opponent.

One netizen wrote: “I agree with Xiao. No one can treat Chinese people unequally, especially during sports events. We are waiting for the results of the investigation together with Xiao.”

The investigation is ongoing and Peter Lines is yet to publicly respond to the allegations.