Popyrin, back in the world's top 50 and having just enjoyed his first significant win of the year over Poland's Kamil Majchrzak, was quickly brought down to earth on Wednesday in the last-16 of the Dubai Tennis Championships with his 6-3 6-2 loss in just 64 minutes.
'Pop' had been the only Aussie in the ATP 500 main draw in the Middle East, after Chris O'Connell and Aleksandar Vukic had both been knocked out in qualifying.
But the 26-year-old, back in the world's top 50 this week after a lean spell, was never really in the hunt against the world No.13 Mensik, who looked still on a high after his brilliant win over Jannik Sinner last week in Doha, where he made the semi-finals of the Qatar Open.
Popyrin couldn't really make a dent in the 20-year-old's serve, not managing to earn a break point in the two sets, while sixth seed Mensik cracked his delivery three times, helped by 21 unforced errors from the Sydneysider.
Popyrin's defeat followed another bad night for the Australian men's challenge at the Mexican Open in Acapulco, where not one of their five players in the main draw managed to get past the first round.
Following Monday's shock of Rotterdam champion Alex de Minaur bowing out to US qualifier Patrick Kypson while Tristan Schoolkate and Adam Walton also succumbing, losses for James Duckworth and Rinky Hijikata 24 hours later completed the early Aussie wipe-out at the Mexican event.
Duckworth, who's risen to become Australia's No.3 in the rankings, lost 6-4 6-1 to Czech Dalibor Svrcina 6-4 6-1, while qualifier Hijikata was defeated 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 by Italian Mattia Bellucci .
In Dubai's match of the day, Daniil Medvedev started proceedings by showing no mercy to Stan Wawrinka, who had been making his last appearance in the tournament. The third-seeded Russian won 6-2 6-3 to set up a match with Jenson Brooksby, who beat seventh seed Karen Khachanov 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
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