- Luke Littler was competing in his first match since winning the World Championship.
- He managed to hold off Lourence Ilagan and achieve a very close victory.
Luke Littler began life as a world champion with a hard-fought victory at the Bahrain Masters on Thursday night.
Just 13 days after becoming the sport's youngest champion at the age of 17, Littler returned to action when he took on Filipino star Lourence Ilagan.
In a best-of-11 match, Littler was pushed at times by his opponent, but ultimately prevailed 6-3.
His standout moment came in the eighth leg when he followed a 180 with a 142 checkout.
Littler won this tournament 12 months ago and his title defense is now underway as he has secured a place in the quarter-finals.
Littler turns 18 next week, and pictures of him celebrating his birthday early with his family and other darts stars were posted online on Thursday.
Luke Littler won his first match since becoming world champion on Thursday night.
The likes of Stephen Bunting and Nathan Aspinall were in attendance, as well as Littler's mother Lisa, with someone dressed in a bull costume handing out the cake, which said “Happy Birthday Luke” and had a photo of him lifting the World Championship. .
His father, Anthony, wrote on Instagram: 'There was school last night' on Instagram, accompanied by a cake emoji, and tagged the Buffalo Wings & Rings restaurant in Adliya Manama, Bahrain.
Littler was seen on his phone at the beginning of the video as traditional happy birthday music began to play and staff began playing instruments.
The teenager caught the camera's attention and soon realized what was heading towards him.
Then the giant bull emerged, carrying the cake to the table as Littler pulled his steed aside and the audience applauded to the music.
Littler then started laughing and appeared to smile for the video, featuring the likes of Aspinall and Rob Cross, who was seen chatting with Lisa.
There appeared to be alcohol on the table, but Littler took a sip of Coke before blowing out the three candles on the cake with 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' playing in the background.
The crowd applauded, and a couple of people in the group appeared to ask him to drink a jagerbomb, while Littler yelled, “No, no, no!” Littler will turn 18 on January 21.
Liverpool v Nottingham Forest, as well as other football highlights, could be seen on televisions throughout the room.