Reduce the delay in autocomplete options. If you use local data, you can set the delay to 0. By default, it is set to 300 (ms). Thus, after a key is pressed, it takes 300 ms before it re-evaluates the data set for matches.
So, basically, your autofocus on the first element did not allow him to filter before getting into it.
Alternatively, you can change the average delay stream after the first autofocus. So, the first time you wait 300 ms to show a sentence, then in the focus event you decrease the timer to 0 ms so that it filters out the list faster.
Be careful, since a delay of 0 can cause problems if it is deleted data. Something like this might work well:
$(".selector").autocomplete({
delay: 300,
focus: function () {
$(".selector").autocomplete("option", "delay", 0);
},
source: sourceData
}