"DECLARE @idoc int
DECLARE @doc varchar(1000)
SET @doc ='
<ROOT>
<Customer CustomerID="VINET" ContactName="Paul Henriot">
<Order CustomerID="VINET" EmployeeID="5" OrderDate="1996-07-04T00:00:00">
<OrderDetail OrderID="10248" ProductID="11" Quantity="12"/>
<OrderDetail OrderID="10248" ProductID="42" Quantity="10"/>
</Order>
</Customer>
<Customer CustomerID="LILAS" ContactName="Carlos Gonzlez">
<Order CustomerID="LILAS" EmployeeID="3" OrderDate="1996-08-16T00:00:00">
<OrderDetail OrderID="10283" ProductID="72" Quantity="3"/>
</Order>
</Customer>
</ROOT>'
--Create an internal representation of the XML document.
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @idoc OUTPUT, @doc
-- Execute a SELECT statement that uses the OPENXML rowset provider.
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML (@idoc, '/ROOT/Customer',1)
WITH (CustomerID varchar(10),
ContactName varchar(20))

If the same SELECT statement is executed with flags set to 2, indicating element-centric mapping, the values of CustomerID and ContactName for both of the customers in the XML document are returned as NULL, because the <Customers> elements do not have any subelements.
"

Это не про ваш случай ?