Teenage sensation Luke Littler kicked off his 2024 campaign with a 6-3 victory over Man Lok Leung at the Bahrain Darts Masters.

Littler, who turns 17 this Sunday, shot to stardom last month with his fairytale run to the PDC World Championship final on debut, where he was eventually beaten 7-4 by Luke Humphries.

The youngster's new-found fame has seen the PDC opt to include him in several high-profile events but he was made to work hard on his World Series bow by his unheralded opponent.

Leung, who stunned Littler's fellow World Youth Championship finalist Gian van Veen at Alexandra Palace last month, represented a potential banana skin.

And fears of the Hong Kong native spoiling Littler's return were heightened when he took the opening two legs, before spurning a chance for the third.

That miss seemed to spark Littler into life as the teen found his groove, racing into a 4-2 lead with sublime checkouts of 151 and 136.

The seventh leg also went the way of the Englishman and he closed out a 6-3 victory with a nerveless 120 finish.

Littler will need to be sharper when he faces reigning World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals on Friday, with the semi-finals and final to be played later in the same session. 

Some of Littler's fellow PDC stars were also run close by their opponents in Bahrain's opening round ofmatches.

Both Peter Wright and Aspinall needed deciding legs to prevail and Gerwyn Price advanced 6-4, before Rob Cross survived a fightback from Tomoya Goto to book his last-eight place by a 6-3 scoreline.

Meanwhile, world champion and No1 seed Humphries picked up where he left off by dispatching Abdulla Saeed 6-0, with Michael van Gerwen also whitewashing the other home nation representative in Hasan Haji.

In the evening's final clash, Michael Smith survived two match darts to sneak past Paolo Nebrida 6-5.

Bahrain Darts Masters quarter-final draw:

Luke Humphries vs Gerwyn Price

Nathan Aspinall vs Luke Littler

Michael van Gerwen vs Rob Cross

Michael Smith vs Peter Wright