Hello shopsoup,
Sorry for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, setting this directly via the menu item isn't possible. However, you can achieve the desired result with a workaround. Try hiding your current menu item prnt.sc/OF4kx0SIz5j3 and creating a new one using System Links -> URL. Then, set the URL to directly display the upcoming event time. This should ensure the event list opens to "upcoming" by default.
If this doesn't solve the issue, please reach out and I'll look into it more deeply.
Best regards