And after victory in a first-round match against Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez at the French Open that she reckons she would have lost a couple of weeks ago, the rejuvenated tennis import's smile on Monday demonstrated she really is gradually extricating herself from the mire.
On the eve of the tournament, Kasatkina was asked about the rough spell she's had with form, injury and confidence in the year since she threw her lot in with Australian tennis.
It left her explaining in her own delightfully inimitable manner how her coach, Italian Flavio Cipolla, had told her a couple of weeks ago that she was about to enter a crucial period of her potential revival.
"He said, 'Dasha, okay, now it's time, you have to swim in the shit! It's like, you have to go in and really swim in it!' .... I said, 'OK'.
"I'm still a little bit swimming there, but it's already getting a bit better! As soon as I accepted it, mentally it was easier.
"I have to go through it again because there's been tough moments in my career before. But it's always tough - they just throw you in the the shit and you have to learn how to swim."
The match against the tough Sonmez felt indeed like survival of the fittest as they slugged it out on the hottest day Kasatkina could remember in her 11 French Opens, swopping 10 breaks of serve between them before she proved the last one standing.
"Very tough match. Honestly, the conditions were brutal. We didn't produce the fabulous level of tennis," said the world No.53, who's hoping to emulate her run to the last 16 last year in her first grand slam as an Aussie.
"Even when you're getting out of the shit, doesn't mean that you're going to play unbelievable every single match.
"That's not how tennis works. It's more about your, like, mental state. Today I showed that it was there -- and that's the most important.
It's a far cry from the end of 2025 when she walked away from the sport, feeling at breaking point mentally after her whirlwind year.
"I've been through a lot, but I already forgot half of it," she smiled.
"Talking about the level of my tennis now, I don't know, I would say, let's say, 65 per cent -- but mentally, emotionally I think I am higher."
Then, one last smile, and the admission: "But I still got a long way to swim in the shit for a little longer..."
