Despite scheduling complaints, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina wins early bird special vs. Jakub Mensik in Toronto

You have to get up pretty early to have a shot at beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina this week at the National Bank Open—earlier than 11 in the morning, anyway.

Despite his misgivings about an 11AM start in Toronto, the No. 20 seeded-Davidovich Fokina made quick work of Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik, blitzing the No. 12 seed, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the fourth round in one hour and 16 minutes on Motorola razr Grandstand Court.

Read more: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina slams ATP for "extremely early" 11 a.m. start in Toronto

Davidovich Fokina has enjoyed an impressive start to the US Open swing. The newlywed scored back-to-back wins over Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton en route to the Mubadala Citi DC Open final, and dealt with the DC-Toronto turnaround to dispatch Corentin Moutet in straight sets for his opening-round win on Wednesday.

Still, the 26-year-old hasn’t had things all his own way up north, issuing a lengthy rebuke of his third-round schedule against Mensik on social media Thursday.

“There are plenty of available courts,” Davidovich Fokina complained in a statement written in Spanish and English, “yet we’re the only ones playing at 11:00.”

Still, Davidovich Fokina showed no early signs of sluggishness as he opened play on Friday, nabbing a double-break advantage over Mensik—a player he’d already beaten twice in 2025 for a 3-1 head-to-head.

Davidovich Fokina gamely served out the match and took a quick 2-0 lead to start the second, but Mensik threatened a comeback as he reeled off the next three games.

The second set stayed on serve until the ninth game, when Mensik played a woeful game to hand Davidovich Fokina a love break, double faulting down 0-40.

Mensik, who won his first Masters 1000 title earlier this year by beating Novak Djokovic in the final, rallied as Davidovich Fokina served for the match, striking a powerful forehand to earn a break point. Davidovich Fokina replied with a strong forehand of his own and quickly nabbed his first match point.

With the match falling just shy of the 80-minute mark, Davidovich Fokina ironically managed to secure victory before his preferred 12:30 start time, earning the win off a missed Mensik return.

Standing between the Spaniard and a spot in the quarterfinals will be either No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev or No. 28 seed Lorenzo Sonego. Rublev leads their head-to-head 5-1, but Davidovich Fokina won their most recent meeting on clay in Barcelona earlier this year. Sonego and Davidovich Fokina would be playing one another for the first time.