The reason that made me start with an upstroke is to be closer to the above string , so that I can easily pick it with a downstroke.

I counted them.. as you said, there are 4 pick strokes instead of 6 bec of the legatos. I play them like this [up-pull-down-up-hammer-down]

you can make the last one an upstroke too if you want, but in order to return to the beginning of the picking pattern with an upstroke, you'll have to use economy picking, which is like sweeping (picking in one direction) ..


Hope this one helps.